And the little bird sang
by Kitty Black Cat
Summary: Post 2.09 so spoilers for that  Kurt's feeling out of place at Dalton and Rachel just got dumped for cheating.She had said they were a lot alike; perhaps they could help each other  I'm awful at summaries. Just read the first chappie to see if you like
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Don't own Glee. If I did things would have been different with the Warblers and Kurt would have been totally happy.**

**AN: First Glee fic ever! And I never thought it'd be a Kurt/Rachel (especially since I had started a Puckurt one after 2.06) Anyway, uhm...spoilers for ep till 2.09 and hum...hope you like it! **

**Chapter 1: **

Kurt looked down at the canary in front of him. Blaine had just left and sure he'd been adorable(again) but….Sighed. Kurt really, really missed New Directions. There, he was never told that he was "trying too hard". There was simply no such thing in New Directions. Hell, he had sang "Le jazz hot" by himself with dancers all around him and everyone had LOVED it! He couldn't even imagine the Warblers' reaction if he pulled something like this here. And as much as he hated Shue's favouritism…he still liked having a teacher in charge better than the democracy they have here. And how come he felt like his voice was heard more in a club where the Director of the club only had eyes and ears for Rachel and Finn than in this democratic system? Blaine was nice and kept saying that he'd adapt himself…that he'd fit in but right now it didn't feel like it. Probably because in New Directions, there had been nothing required of him to do to fit in. He stayed completely his fabulous self and fit right in. He supposed Blaine was right about things getting better but…suddenly his phone rang and interrupted his thoughts. It was Rachel. Kurt raised an eyebrow. Sure Rachel and he had been friendlier recently and he had felt like he was connecting with her at some point but…it was still unusual for her to call him. Especially crying hysterically.

"Rachel?" Kurt asked "RACHEL!" he screamed into the phone, trying to make his friend snap out of it. "What's wrong? Please calm down I can't hear you ok? Are you hurt? Did Karofsky or Azimio do something?" He asked, a bit worried. Now that their favourite target had left the school who knew who the would go after next? Actually, one could guess. They hated Kurt for his differences, his individuality. If there was one person at WMHS who stood out, proud of who she was, and not compromising herself to please others(well not to please bullies anyway) it was Rachel Berry. That girl was out there in your face! And after everything that happened, he didn't put it past Karosfky to hurt a girl.

"Rachel please tell me where you are! I need to know if you're safe!"

"I am" Rachel sobbed "It's all my fault. I was so stupid Kurt. And now he hates me"

"Finn" Kurt said simply. Of course it had to do with Finn. "What has he done now?"

"He…he broke up with me"

"What?"Kurt asked surprised. He knew how crazy his now-official-stepbrother was for one Rachel Berry (though most people would say he was simply crazy). What in the world could have happened.

"I really need a friend right now Kurt and….and the others….they're not friends…they hate me….or they will because of what I did to Finn" Rachel cried. That made Kurt think. When he had seen Rachel at Sectionals, she was angry at Finn for sleeping with Santana the year before and now she had done something that had obviously upset Finn so what…? Oh no. Oh no. She didn't.

"Rachel, hun. Please tell me you did not get back at Finn for sleeping with someone else by sleeping with another guy. Please. I don't think I can help you if you did"

"K..k..kissed. Not sex, never sex. Kissed. *sobs*Kissed Puck." Kurt sighed loudly and put his head between his knees. He really, really didn't need this right now. But when everyone seemed so happy with solo partners and he was all alone, Rachel was the one who saw how truly upset he was. She was the one who tried to help. He owed it to her to her to at least offer an attentive ear in her time of distress, no matter how in the wrong she was for kissing Puck. "Well, at least you didn't sleep with him" Kurt said lamely. He didn't really know what to say to her.

"Puck pushed me away. Said he couldn't do this to Finn again" Rachel told her friend, having settled down and stopped crying for now.

Kurt's eyes widened in surprise. "Uh. Would you look at that. Puckerman grew a conscience since I left"

"Yes" Rachel said quietly. Her voice sounded raw from crying too much and he could hear her blow her nose. "Apparently he told Karosfky he was on his hit list for what he did to you."

If Kurt had been surprised before at manwhore Puckerman refusing sex, he was even more surprised at Puck defending him.

"How…nice of him"

"Yes. And how awful of me for what I did to Finn" Kurt sighed. This really didn't feel like the kind of conversation to be had on the phone. Plus, he really felt the need to get out of there.

"Ok Rachel, where are you exactly?"

"The auditorium."

"Ok well go home, take a shower to relax yourself and then take out some tofu ice cream and Broadway music and I'll be there in an hour ok?"

"Ok"

"Good" Kurt was about to turn his phone off when "Kurt?" Rachel asked in a small voice.

"Yes Rachel?"

"You're a really good friend."

Kurt's expression lit up and he had some tears in his eyes. Him a good friend to Rachel Berry? Why did hearing that make him feel better? Somehow that just filled some of the emptiness he felt in his heart. He was a good friend. He was good. How long had it been since he really felt he was good? He thought Dalton would miraculously make everything better but….Kurt shook his head. This wasn't about him. It was about Rachel. Kurt smiled a little at that thought. Yes he had even missed how everything was always about Rachel in New Directions. Although apparently it wasn't the case anymore. And it had to happen after Kurt left. Or maybe at the same time? Shue had wanted to give him a solo on the day he left after all. But that was beside the point.

"Thank you. I know I've been horrible to you before"

"It's fine." She interrupted him "Well not completely. You did hurt me you know. I thought that maybe you had offered a makeover to become my friend but…"

"I should have. You're personality can be irritating and sometimes we're too alike and can't stand each other at those moments, but you're essentially a good person Rachel. And you're very attentive to others. You knew when I was upset while no one else did. You noticed that something was worst than usual with Karosky while everyone else thought it was just the same whole thing. You're ambitious and selfish at times because of it. And you're not the best at dealing with strong emotions just like me and you make mistakes. I'll also never be able to tolerate some of your wardrobe but then I dislike most people's clothes so…Just…wait for me ok. I'll be there soon. I can't promise I'll make things better. But I'll be there for you"

"Ok. Thanks Kurt. That's more than I hoped to receive." Rachel said sadly, then added as an afterthought. "Be careful"

"You too. No driving while crying. I want to see you at your house not the hospital" Rachel chuckled, promising him she'd be careful then hanging up.

Kurt looked at the bird in front of him and then at his watch. Rachel was devastated. She had made a horrible mistake and terribly hurt the boy she had loved forever. Yes she was self-centered but she truly loved Finn. And like all Divas she overreacted. Half-measure and Rachel Berry didn't go hand in hand. She lived emotions much like she sang. Finn couldn't possibly understand that. He couldn't understand how overwhelming and blinding these emotions could be. Kurt could. He didn't condone what she had done at all. It was wrong and Kurt understood Finn's reaction completely. But Rachel hadn't called him to judge her; she was already doing that to herself. No, if he wanted to be a friend he'll support her as much as she can. Help her comes to grip with things and eventually forgive herself and…and Alexander McQueen, how in the world was he supposed to do that? He had been a mess so often recently…well…he guessed Rachel and he would be messed up and miserable together. The bird chirped. The Warbler's canary. The Warblers. With the time it took to go to Lima, have a serious talk with talkative Rachel Berry and come back to Dalton, there was no way Kurt would make it back in time for practice. He loved singing and dancing and Glee was his favourite time of the week but…he looked down at his phone, his wall image being one of the entire WMHS Glee Club. He closed his phone, took the bird and went up to his room to fetch his car keys. He knew where he belonged at that precise moment. His friend needed him; the Warblers didn't.

/

AN: Ok that's all for chapter 1. Hope you liked it. Next will be the discussion btw Kurt and Rachel and they'll eventually talk about the whole DAlton thing. Oh and if you love how the Warblers and Dalton was written...I'm sorry if my fic sounds criticising. Don't be offended I reacted bery emotionally to the ep, things will turn down, plus well feel free to stop reading it. Although I'd like ppl to read it and give feedback 'cause it's my first Glee fic.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **If I owned Glee the Warblers would work in an awesome way and Kurt would have been smiling like crazy at Sectionals and I wouldn't have been sad. But I don't own Glee. Just this fic and the emotions I'm trying to catharsize by writing it.

An: This chapter is about Kurt and Rachel talking about Rachel's problem. Hope you enjoy! Oh and **Big thanks to all reviewers and ppl who put it on fic alert or faved it! **I wasn't sure 'cause it's my first Glee fic you know, but I'm happy you seem to like it! Hope that continues!

**Chapter 2**

The ride to Lima had gone fairly quickly. Kurt had put his Rent soundtrack to try and cheer himself up enough to be in a good place when he went to help Rachel. She needed someone who could listen without letting his emotions get the best of him; she needed someone to ground her devastated diva self. Kurt had tried to think of what he could possibly say to Rachel but he couldn't come up with anything that wasn't a complete and useless cliché or simply sounded lame. What did he know about relationships and how to handle break-ups? He felt truly clueless and he hated it. Like it had been for a month now, his first reaction to such hesitation was to talk to Blaine about it and ask him advice but…well somehow his relationship with Blaine didn't seem like it used to be. And wasn't that completely lame? That after one week at Dalton where things between his friend and him had been different, the younger boy was already so dejected about it. Blaine was only his friend after all and he had other friends…at McKingley. Kurt had yet to click with someone at Dalton like he had first done with Mercedes, Tina and Artie. Of course he didn't expect to have relationships as strong as the ones he had with his WMHS' friends at Dalton's but he still expected something. Mostly though, he had always imagined Blaine being there to support him in his first weeks of adaptation and he was sad to say that he hadn't felt like the older boy had his back. Kurt shook his head. This was so not the time to be thinking about this. He was homesick. That was to be expected. Things would get better in no time; he would soon adapt to how Dalton works. Now if only Kurt could convince himself that this was the truth, it would be perfect. Unfortunately, his more pessimistic side was in control at the moment.

When he arrived at Rachel's place, he was happy to see that her dads' cars weren't there. It would be easier to talk to her this way. If she had called him instead of one of her dads, it meant that she needed a friend not a father. There were just some things teenagers didn't want to tell their parents and trying to talk honestly and overtly with Rachel while being careful not to let her dads hear would have been awkward and would have probably worried her fathers too. As soon as Rachel opened the door, Kurt found himself trapped in a tight hug and tears running down on his blazer. Thank goodness it was just the Dalton blazer and not one of his blazers: designer clothes and tears did not go well together. Dalton's blazers however were made to resist whatever adventures teenage boys would put them through. Although reflecting back, with what he had witnessed at Dalton's Academy for boys in the last week, he imagines that there were very few adventures worth telling going on for the boys of that school.

"*sob* Oh Kurt…it was so horrible. I'm so stupid! I…*sob*…I*sob*…" Kurt awkwardly patted his friend on her back, trying to move his arms through his friend's death grip.

"Rachel. I know you're upset and I understand but why don't we move inside huh? It'd be much more comfortable and you can tell me everything" Rachel nodded and brought him to the living room where the Sound of Music was playing on the HD TV and where two bowls filled with a huge portion of tofu ice cream were waiting for them. Although one of the bowls was almost empty by now. Kurt sat beside Rachel, sideways, facing her and he put his hand on one of her knees.

"Alright start with the beginning"

Rachel took a huge breath and then another one. She needed to talk about this but in order to do that she needed to stop crying. So she used the breathing technique she would use before a public performance when she was younger and not as confident in her own talent as she was now. Soon, she was calmed enough to speak.

"It all started with announcing Finn and I wouldn't get the solo. Understandably, I freaked out and protested. You know how I am." Rachel said. Kurt's eyes widened as he nodded. Lord did he know how she was. There wasn't anyone in New Directions who didn't know how Rachel reacts when she doesn't get the solo. That girl was LOUD. She had annoyed most of them more times than they could probably count. But still, there was something somewhat reassuring about Rachel's predictability. If she had reacted well, everyone in Glee Club would have thought the apocalypse was coming or that she was a pod-person.

"So I reacted like I normally do and of course people aka Quinn and Santana got annoyed and then Santana implied Finn had been lying to me when he said he hadn't had sex with her. Now I can be a jealous person. You know that. Everyone knows that, you can see it when I don't get solos. But that's mostly envy really and the love of singing and showing my talent to the world. But with Finn, it's more about fear you know. I mean he dated Quinn, had sex with Santana, two cheerleaders and look at me!" she exclaimed looking down at herself in disgust. "I'm not pretty like them. And I like to have everything to myself, sometimes. I try to be better now but…" she added in a broken voice.

"And you are. Rachel you're so much better. When you first entered Glee, no one but you entered your radar. No one else had any importance. I know because I was just like that too. But being in Glee club, it made us realise that certain of our reactions were wrong and we needed to be team players. I thought I had succeeded in mostly being one but apparently not." He whispered distractively, talking more to himself than actually telling Rachel. She frowned in confusion at his last statement but Kurt waved her off and shook his head. That didn't matter at the moment. "Either way, the point is that even though you're competitive, loud, have a huge ego which I can't blame you for without being a hypocrite, and act selfish at times, you're generally a really good person. And you're the only one who noticed how bad I felt after the duets and then how bad things were with Karofsky. And both times you actually did something about it. That's not something a lot of people have done Rachel." He said, taking her face in his hand.

"As for your physical appearance, you're absolutely crazy to demean yourself compared to Quinn and Santana. Now I like them both well enough, well mostly Quinn really, but….Quinn is like this china doll. She looks pretty and innocent…and just like every single other China doll. Her face, her body…it's doesn't have true personality. You do. You're not a Barbie like they are, but Barbie's are children's toys Rachel. In primary school, in high school, they're the pinnacle of beauty. But out there in the real world, with men who have matured from immature superficial boys, they're not the queens of the world anymore. You have a spark to you that neither of them have Rachel. Don't forget that. And beside, when you wore that Britney outfit I thought we'd have to ask for a restraining order for Azimio. He looked at you worse than Mercedes looks at Tots after a month without eating them. " Rachel shuddered. The first altercation she had had with him had been nice for her self-esteem, but during the rest of the day, he had really creeped her out with the way he had been looking at her.

"Thank you. That's a really nice thing to say Kurt. Especially since we both know you'd like nothing more as a Christmas present than to burn half of my wardrobe."

"Oh honey, I'd burn half of most people's wardrobe. Just ask Carole how many items of clothing I made her give to charity" He said trying and succeeded in making his friend laugh a little. "Better now?"

" A little" she said softly. "But it's hard to be. I know my faults, but I always thought deep down I was a good person. I tried to be, but….. well I wasn't such a good person in this case, was I?" She said, her tone filled with self-loathing.

Kurt's face fell. He hated to hear Rachel talk about herself like that. He knew how that felt. He had heard that self-hating tone in his own voice before, at the time where he thought the bullies were right and that being gay meant being bad. It had been a long time ago and it hadn't last that long; like Rachel, Kurt tended to be a person who really liked himself. But it had happened. He mostly hated himself for not being a son his dad could relate with; something he would never, ever tell his dad about because in the older man's eyes, his baby boy was perfect. Kurt knew that no matter what, he had to ensure Rachel wouldn't hate herself. Yes she would berate herself for her mistake and have regrets; didn't they all? But hating herself like this? No, if things continued like this, Rachel would completely destroy herself; she would lost that wonderful inner flame that made her shine so much, made her so special compared to other people.

"Even good people make mistakes and do bad things, Rach." Kurt started. Hopefully, he could pull this off. Hopefully, something would go just right for him this week, "It doesn't make them any less good. Just flawed like the rest of us. You think I didn't make mistakes before? Lord Rach, I made my Dad meet Carole so I could get closer to Finn! And when it worked and we ended up sharing the same room, to try and make things better I decided to redecorate, which would have been fine if I had included Finn and his opinion in it but did I? No. Instead I transformed the basement into a room from "Les Milles et une nuit". It was girly even for me. And Finn? He made the mistake of using 'faggy' twice that night to refer to the decoration accessories instead of simply saying it was not his style at all and he felt completely out of place in that room. And don't get me started on the "if you do a solo with Sam, you will destroy his life forever by making people think he's gay" speech. I wanted to throttle him! Nobody's perfect Rachel and that's something I need you to remember okay? I'm not agreeing with what you did, heck you're not agreeing with what you did but don't hate yourself for it. I know you feel bad and you have regrets and it's to be expected, but never hate yourself Rachel. Ok? Hating yourself will just make things worst. Just look at Karofsky. It's because he loathes himself that he bullied me in the first place"

Rachel looked at him with an interrogation mark on her face. "I can't. It's not my story to tell. Well it is my story to tell but it isn't my secret and I can't tell his secret to anyone. Not only because he threatened my life if I talked but also because I know what the repercussion for him would be and as much as I hate him and I do, I can't do that even to him."

"Then you're a better person than I am."

"Oh no!" Kurt exclaimed. " I think you and I are pretty much the same. Though I might be worst than you. I did give you that awful makeover after all. Not that you weren't hot, you just weren't both hot and yourself which is totally doable by the way. Just tell me when you want me to go through that wardrobe and fix it." Rachel laughed.

"Thank you but right now, I'm not really in the mood."

"Then what are you in the mood of?"

Rachel thought about it. " How about Chicago?"

"Oh yes! We can sing along Cell Block Tango! That should cheer me up! I mean cheer you up!" Kurt rectified at his friend's inquiring look. This was about Rachel, not him.

Rachel nodded. "Alright. Let's do it"

So they watched the movie and ate their melted ice cream with some candy. They sand and laughed and had more a lot more fun than Kurt had had since entering Dalton's Academy. This was what singing was all about. It was powerful, filled with emotion and theatrical. This was what Rachel and he were like. Kurt felt like a huge pressure had been lifted off his shoulders. This was how he had felt at first with Blaine: elated and enthusiastic. Kurt sighed inwardly. He wished he felt like this at Dalton's. He had came here to cheer his friend up and in the end it only made him even more homesick. Oh well…at least Rachel wasn't a sobbing mess anymore. Then, close to the movie's ending, Rachel started talking again.

" You know I wished Finn saw things like you did. This way I could feel like maybe, someday, he'd forgive me and come back to me but…the more I thought about it in last hour, the less hope I saw. He was betrayed by Quinn and Puck, and sure they had sex and we just kissed but….I knew what I was doing you know. I told Finn the truth. That I wanted to make him feel bad like he had made me feel bad."

"A very understandable reaction. You were hurt deeply and felt betrayed, so you lashed out. It's completely normal although it's ill-advised to act on such impulses" Dear Lord, how was he talking? In one way, he was happy to be able to say things that made sense; in another way, he felt like a psychiatrist or one of these hosts on daytime's shows.

"Then why didn't Finn understand" Rachel cried out "He said he loved me despite my faults but that he never thought I was mean. And when I told him he had promised to never break-up with me, he said that he had never thought I'd make him feel that way!" She started crying some more. Boy the girl was going to have a major headache later on, Kurt thought.

"well to be frank I didn't expect you to make him feel that way either." Rachel looked at him with a dejected look "but I never thought that the thought of kissing someone else would ever occur to you. You're crazy about Finn; I'm well placed to know that. And when you're in a relationship, you don't see anything else. I hate to bring him up after the pain he caused you, but just take when you were with Jesse as an example. How many times did Finn try to win you back? A lot. And you weren't completely over Finn I think and yet you never even thought of straying from Jesse. Which is more than Finn can say when you first dated before Jesse. And really, no one ever expects these things to happen and yet they do. And not just with serial cheaters. Even good people can cheat. The only difference is that a good person will only cheat once and regret it deeply: serial cheaters just don't care and do whatever they want. You're not like that. This was a one time mistake; I'm convinced of it. No matter how bad any other fight with Finn could have gone, I know that this would never had happened again"

"It wouldn't have. I made a mistake. A huge mistake and I need to make up for it and to ask for forgiveness 'cause I won't be simply given it but it was a one time mistake. I understand that if I had cheated before, Finn could doubt me and think it would happen again, but it wouldn't. And I understand he's mad, I would have been furious if the situation were reverse. But I know that if they had been, even though I'd have probably broken up with Finn like he did me and stormed out like a diva, I know I would have forgiven him and take him back. But with Finn, I don't feel like that is even a possibility. And god I'm so stupid!" She sobbed. Kurt put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a light massage.

"I'm really so stupid. You'd think after the whole mess with Jesse and the 'Run, Joey Run' song fiasco I would have learnt not to involve other guys in any way in my relationship. I mean I just sang that song with 3 different guys and Jesse broke up with me. What was I thinking telling Finn the truth?" Rachel said putting her head between her hands. "It was a stupid one time thing and Noah would have shut up about it if I had asked him. I mean he cares a lot about Finn's friendship after all. After Jesse dumped me over that song, how could I have not thought that telling Finn the truth would only get me dumped for good!"

"Ok. First of all, let's make something very clear. Jesse St-James was a selfish, egoistical diva with apparently little to no morals who used you and left you for his soulless automaton friends. And when I say diva, I mean DIVA. Almost like you and me diva and he was used to getting exactly what he wanted and when something bothered him, instead of talking it out like a normal person, he went all Diva on you and dumped you over something completely petty, then stormed out. That boy is not in any way a good example as to how boyfriends react. Beside he wasn't supposed to be with you for good. Maybe he was just looking for an excuse to break up and hurt you so you wouldn't be your usual amazing self at Regionals. Although why he took you back afterwards I don't know. You couldn't have expected Finn to ever react like Jesse. Me? You? Jesse? Yes, we react like that. We would totally storm out in anger, with our head up high and being almost snobby and condescending to the other person. Why? We're Divas. We're extravagant and out there and expect people to deal with it. But sometimes they don't" Kurt added the last part slowly, in a depressed tone.

"So Finn being so different from St-James, it was normal not to think Finn would react like him. As for Finn's reaction, well…it's not really unexpected. You said yourself that you would have reacted the same way. And it all depends on what is to come. The common reaction is to break-up on the moment and then they think about it, ask themselves if they can forgive and then give the other a chance. " Rachel looked at him with hopeful eyes. Kurt thought she could get Finn back? Kurt saw the hope in his friend's eyes and as much as he wanted to see her better, he couldn't not be honest with her. She deserved better no matter how painful it was. "However, other times, people stay broken up for good. Some may become friends but can never get back the trust needed for a romantic relationship." Rachel looked down. "You have to give it time." Kurt sighed. "Gucci I hate that expression: give it time! Like time will make everything magically better! But what if it doesn't, huh? What then? You stay feeling like an underappreciated accessory that has something wrong with it?" he vented.

Rachel's eyes widened. Oh her sixth sense was tingling again. Something was wrong with her friend. Something serious. She should have known. Sectionals had been weird. Every Warbler had this huge smile just like she knew every ND members had a huge smile, but Kurt? She had thought maybe it was some residue from the whole Karofsky horror show but really when in the world was Kurt singing without smiling when the song isn't one that express his negative sentiment about something of the other? Never. Just like her, even in his darkest times, Kurt Hummel could push his misery aside and be happy during a song because singing was an intrinsic part of themselves. She had to get to the bottom of this. After all, like Kurt had said, there was nothing she could do right now about her relationship with Finn. It all depended on him right now and not on her. So she could help her friend; she could be a good person again. Yes, Rachel decided. She could be a good friend. And so she pushed aside her own problems and opened her ears wide hoping to offer some release to her friend the same way he had done for her.

/

AN: Hope you liked it! Next is Kurt talking to Rachel about Dalton! It's being written now, so expect it soon enough!


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Don't own anything! No really, I don't! Why don't you believe me?**

**Warning****: **Uhm if you liked how the Warblers functioned or just like them a lot, you may not like this chapter. I was personally disappointed in 2.09 because of how the Warblers were and disappointed in Blaine. It made me terribly sad for Kurt, made me angst and made me angry. As a result, my fic is biased by my own emotions. Writing is a form of catharsis. If you don't agree with my opinion, then don't force yourself to read this chapter. To each their own. Just don't flame please.

**Chapter 3**

Rachel pushed aside her own problems and opened her ears wide hoping to offer some release to her friend the same way he had done for her.

"Somehow I feel this isn't about me and Finn anymore" She said softly.

Kurt's eyes widened. He hadn't meant to verbalise his thoughts.

" Kurt, how are you really doing?"

"Fine. Anyway, this is about you."

"No" she says firmly. "Friendship is a two-way street Kurt. It's about the both of us and if you're not feeling well I want you to tell me. Things are bad for me now but perhaps I can make things better for you. This way one of us will smile for real" Kurt gave her a tiny smile, barely a smile at all. "You weren't smiling during sectionals. All the other Warblers had these huge smiles and so did we, but you? No. And yet you normally always have a huge smile on your face during competition. Singing is part of your personality Kurt! You can't live without it just like I can't live without it. Or at least not live and maintain a modicum of sanity" Kurt let a soft chuckle escape. It was true. Songs had been one of the few things that kept him sane through all the difficulties he had had in his life. "What happened, Kurt?"

Kurt sighed. "I wish I knew."

"At sectionals, you said that the Warblers didn't appreciate your individuality like we did. What did you mean by that?" Kurt looked down. He looked so sad, as if someone had just kicked his puppy.

"Well it's different there."

Rachel nodded. That was to be expected. "Different how?"

"Well for one Glee club isn't controlled by a teacher but by a senior council and it's that council who decides who has solos. You can talk and make suggestions sure but"

"But?"

"But mine were quickly shut down. And it's not like it never happened in our Glee Club, especially in the boys vs girls competitions but….although it angered me, it didn't make me feel like a complete fool. I never felt so uncertain about my ideas in my life, Rach. At our Glee club, I just sat down and raged about how others just don't understand what fabulous means. I feel like the others are missing something, not me."

"But with the Warblers you felt like they were right and your ideas were stupid?" Kurt nodded. "Wow. That's harsh and it really sucks. Especially since you most have been so sad about not getting a solo."

"Yes, you know how I am. Of course I would have loved to have a solo but it's not like New Direction hadn't prepared me to not having one. It's just….yes I was sad that I wasn't chosen to go to the next step of elimination but…"

"Next step of elimination? Like at American Idol?"

"Sort of, yes. But it was more than not being chosen. I am the new kid. Those other boys, they've audition for solos before, so of course they deserve it more than I do, you know. But it's the way they reacted to my solo. I didn't feel…it's one thing to be told you don't get a solo. It's another thing to feel like your solo wasn't appreciated at all and then to have the boy you considered a friend tell you not to try so hard next time? Like you had tried too hard this time around? Rachel I went to you because out of everyone I know, you're the person who knows best how to prepare for an audition and because I know that the suggestions you would give me would fit well with whom I am and what music I like. If I had gone to Finn, he would have suggested a rock or rap song and do you see me singing rock or rap for an audition where I'm supposed to do my best? And that's just it. Aren't you supposed to do your best during an audition? It's not like I arrived with make-up on, a half-white half-black suit and a dozen cheerleaders dancing with me to "Le Jazz hot"! **That** would have been too much and trying too hard! And yet, did anyone in New Directions tell me I was exaggerating for a simple duet competition? I mean compared to everyone else, my presentation was totally overboard and yet every one was cheering me on and congratulating me after it, even Puck! And you know how Puckerman is about all the fla fla. When I made suggestions for the mash-up he told me to go spy on Dalton and that I'd fit right in. And I really thought I would. But I should have known. I mean seriously when was the last time Noah Puckerman was right about something?"

"When he stopped me from doing the worst mistake of my life by sleeping with him even though I love Finn?" Kurt winced and said "Sorry." "It's fine" Rachel said. "I know it wasn't really a dig at Noah and even if it was, you two don't have a lot in common so it's normal that you can't really understand each other. Noah just doesn't get theatricality and Broadway and Musicals. He will never be the guy who sings those songs or do extravagant things. It doesn't fit him and when you sing, you need to choose a song that really represents who you are, a song that touches you, you know."

Kurt smiled and answered "And you have your reason for my not smiling at Sectionals. The songs you guys sang, I would listen to and would have loved singing it but Soul Sister…for some reason I couldn't connect with it. It's not that it's a bad song but I think after Blaine basically told me to 'tuned it down' I didn't feel like singing this kind of song. I felt like singing something funky or sad or angry. With you guys I could have sung 'Soul Sister' but that's because you wouldn't have made me feel this way."

"What way?"

Kurt's eyes filled with tears. "Like there was something wrong with me and my musical taste and how I sing. Rachel, I didn't go overboard. I didn't sing Defying Gravity and show them that I can hit the High F when I'm pretty sure no boys there can! I wasn't showing off! I was simply being myself and I got bad reactions for it! Except when I tell boys ideas that concern them and include feathers or girl things, when has anyone in New Directions criticise my ideas, my song choices or how I sang? Whether criticising my voice or how much emotions I put in it?"

"Never! Of course we wouldn't! Kurt, the songs you sing are who you are or how you feel. It's the same with all of us. And you're so incredibly talented. I wasn't kidding when I said you were my only true competition. You are! Because the kinds of song that I'm best at and I enjoy the most, are exactly the kind of song you're the best at too. We're really similar in our musical taste. You think Mercedes, no matter how amazing she is, could really be a true competition in doing Broadway? Just think of "Don't Rain on my Parade". After me, you would be the one doing the best version of that song. And when Broadway musicals are concerned, that will always be the case. 'Don't cry for me Argentina' is a perfect song for the both of us. You could have song a recent Pop song but Kurt…as much as we love Gaga and other modern artists, deep down Pop songs will never truly represent us. We like ballads and extravagant song where we can put our emotions in it and sing at the top of our voice because we feel at the top of the world when we sing those songs."

"I know! That's exactly how I feel. And Blaine just didn't get it. He kept saying that I would adapt to the differences and I guess I will, but I…right now I just feel really bad. And it hurt me that Blaine said 'don't try so hard'. When I was with Mercedes and him at Breadsticks, you should have seen me. You know how I am when I'm passionate about something. The way I talked about Vogue with him, I went total fangirl Rachel! And he didn't say anything about it, he was pretty fangirl himself! So how could he have been surprised at my song choice and tell me that. How Rachel?" Kurt said, a few tears escaping his eyes. This was so ridiculous. He hated it. He shouldn't feel that way. Sure he would clearly need to adapt his repertoire and ask for other Warblers advice on song selections for auditions from now on but…he shouldn't feel so bad about it. He should see it as a new challenge, a way to expend his singing territory. Instead, he just felt disappointed.

" You know" Rachel started "I really don't understand what is up with Dalton. At McKingley, when one of us feels down or happy we ask " if I may?"before he starts telling us about this week's assignment and he and everyone else let us express ourselves. It's how we deal with all the shit that goes down in that school. It's what keeps us all sane. The way you talk about Dalton now, I feel like if you asked to sing a song just for the sake of singing at practice, they would crucify you or tell you to stop it!" Rachel exclaimed indignantly. Oh she did not like what she was hearing about that club at all! Sure they had been good at Sectionals, she could admit to that. But singing was about emotions unless your soulless automatons like Vocal Adrenaline. And sure they win every year but they don't have any true passion (except perhaps Jesse. He had done well enough in New Directions, but when he went back to VA it was like there was a wall of non-feeling and non-individuality had been raised. She had felt disappointed in seeing that. She felt like people should fully express their personality. Except bullies of course. They should be expelled and sent to a therapist who would help them develop a human personality as opposed to a mindless Neanderthal one). And if there was something Rachel knew about Kurt Hummel is that he was a passionate person. When they did something he loved, like Defying Gravity or Gaga, you could see his whole face lit up and he would have tons of ideas. He was such an enthusiastic person and yet right now, looking at him, she couldn't see that special spark he always carried around with him. The bullying had gotten so bad Kurt really had to leave and yet, she had still been able to see that spark when he was at McKingley.

"You know, I'm pretty sure you're right. I can just imagine the confusion and shock on the Warblers' faces if I asked to simply sing in front of them before the meeting could start! They wouldn't let me. There's an order to be respected. Every single meeting we start off the same way, we do things in the same order and it end the same."

"Dear Lord, that would drive me crazy! Nothing is ever the same at McKingley. I mean I understand that they want a certain stability, I like that as much as anyone else but every thing looks so strict there."

"It is."

"But it must work for them right?" she inquired. "You haven't been having fun because that's not how you're use to things working"

"That's what Blaine keeps saying" interrupted Kurt

"I understand that his comment hurt you. It would have hurt me too. But you are having some fun right? Surely the others' having so much fun must be contagious!" Kurt shook his head. Rachel was basing her assumption on how things work with New Directions.

"No. I mean when they sang Teenage Dream when I was spying on them, you could see their happiness radiate. Same thing at sectionals. But during the meeting, everything is so formal. When we learnt the choreography everyone was so serious."

"Well Sectionals were coming Kurt. Everyone handles stress differently. Perhaps that's why they were so formal and strict. Because they felt everything had to be perfect for Sectionals. Maybe now things will be different."

"I hope so. Glee was the brightest moment of my day. It still is but it's just not as bright you know. And Blaine told me there would be other solo auditions"

"Exactly!" Rachel exclaimed, trying to cheer her friend up. "You can try again."

"I don't want to!" Kurt screamed, startling Rachel. She was shocked at his exclamation; so was he actually. He hadn't expected that " I don't want to audition again. I don't want to feel like I'm a peach and everyone else is a broccoli! Because if they didn't like 'Don't cry for me Argentina' what song that I enjoy singing will they like? What song in my repertoire can I sing to get myself a solo? Katy Perry?"

"Dear Lord no!" Rachel looked at him in horror. "That is not you at all. Gaga sure. Britney, sure. But not Katy Perry. I really can't imagine you singing any of her songs." Rachel paused and thought. Her face fell "You don't feel like you can truly be yourself with them do you?"

"It's worse than that Rach." Kurt said, in a miserable tone. " I'm scared or nervous at least and a little ashamed of being myself. I'm not sure about anything about myself anymore. I feel like everyone thinks I was in the wrong during that audition and they were in the right to shoot me down and tell me to tune it down" He admitted. Rachel's face went from sad to angry. How dare they make her friend feel like that. Never, **never** had the bullies succeeded in breaking Kurt and making him unsure of himself. No matter how bad things got, Kurt never stopped loving himself or stopped thinking he was better than those Neanderthals. But things at Dalton were different. At McKingley, the people who tried to make Kurt reflect their own image were the stupid, mean jocks; not the people who are supposed to be his friends or at least have his back.

"Well then the hell with them Kurt! If they can't see how fabulous you are, diva personality and all, then…then…screw them!" She screamed and then blushed at the swear. She wasn't use to using this type of words, but she needed to say them. She had tried. She had really, really tried to see the positive side and convey to Kurt with certainty that things were going to get better. She was fully prepared to re-analyse things and tell him that different wasn't bad but different didn't necessarily mean good either.

"I'm sorry Kurt. I tried to be a good friend and find the silver lining and help you but what you've just told me makes me so angry!"

"You're not being a bad friend Rachel. Quite the opposite actually. I wouldn't have wanted you to tell me false truth. I've been lying to myself enough since entering Dalton. I told Blaine that things were different; not worse, not better just different. But I was trying to convince myself. I already had this feeling deep inside of me that something was wrong with the Warblers and me. That something in that group just wouldn't fit with who I am. And I was right. They want me to tune it down. To fit in. To be one with the group. I guess if I try really hard I can do that…"

"Don't." Rachel ordered him firmly. "Kurt, you said that I had something other girls didn't. That I had a spark. Well so do you. Out of every one at our Glee Club, you were one with the brightest inner flame I had ever seen. And no matter what those bullies did to you, you never let them touch that flame. You didn't let your tormentors extinguish that flame because you knew deep down they weren't worth it; don't let friends and comrades try to contain and diminish that flame so it's less blinding for their little eyes. They aren't worth it either. No one is. If I had decided to radically change my whole personality when I started dating Finn, would you have respected me for doing it? I've tried to improve and be less selfish but I'm still my annoying diva self. If I had stopped being so out there, if I had stopped butting in with my opinion and instead be a nice, quiet, and whatever-she-was girlfriend like Quinn, do you think Finn would have loved me more?"

"Of course not!" Kurt said, rolling his eyes. "He fell in love with you just the way you are. And sure you could improve on certain points, everyone needs to"

"Then where is our Kurt who wore a Gaga outfit with heels so high I wouldn't be able to walk on them and stood proudly in front of Karofsky and Azimio and stated clearly that he wasn't going to change, that he loved himself just like he was! Where is all that admirable confidence of yours? Kurt, don't lose that. I know the bullying has hurt you more than I can probably imagine and it might have you made you start doubting yourself, but you shouldn't. Because there isn't a single thing about who you are that all your friends in New Directions didn't love. They may not have likes all aspects of you, but they all loved you. Even Noah appreciates you deep down! And if there was someone you could doubt that liked you considering the past, it's Noah. Yet he went to the synagogue with his Grandma to pray for your dad when he was in the hospital and trust me Noah doesn't go to the synagogue! And he threatened Karofsky for putting you in a position where you had no other choice than to leave. Got himself locked up in a porta-potty for 24 hours but…"

"What?" Kurt interrupted.

"Oh yes. That's how we got our new member. See Puck decided to recruit for Glee in the football lockers" Kurt's gave her an incredulous look "Yes, I know. I don't know what in the world he could have been thinking doing that either. He should have simply gone to the cheerleaders of Glee so they could get another one to join in at least for Sectionals. Actually, why didn't I think of that before? Oh yes." Suddenly she remembered. "I hate Santana. But anyway, Noah tried himself with the jocks, they got mad, punched him, and locked him up in the porta-potty. Then, the day after, Lauren found him and helped him out. She had two conditions to join Glee. I don't remember the first one but the second one was 7 minutes in heaven with Puck"

Kurt suddenly looked a little nauseous. She wondered if it was at the idea of someone kissing Lauren or someone kissing Puck. Probably both, though for Lauren it wasn't personal. Any girl kissing would have been gross for Kurt.

"I honestly don't know who I feel most sorry for" Kurt said

"Well not Puck, because he said she had changed or rocked his world or something. I wasn't really paying attention. I was still too upset with the whole Finn-slept-with-Santana-of-all-people thing. I mean why her? Out of all the girls. She's so mean."

"And manipulative and has a lot of sexual experience, which made it extremely easy for her to put her claws into Finn and use him just like she wanted. Rachel, do you know why Santana told you about her and Finn?"

"Because she hates me and was pissed at me about what I said about the solos." Rachel answered.

"No. Not that she wasn't angry at your reactions to the solo, I'm sure she was but deep down it was because she's jealous."

"Of me? I mean yes I'm a better singer than she is but she doesn't think that."

Kurt shook his head.

"She's not jealous of who you are but what you had with Finn. Rachel, Finn is…was your boyfriend." Kurt winced at the same time as Rachel. This had been something hard to say for Kurt and hard to hear for Rachel. "When was the last time you saw Santana with a boyfriend"

Rachel stopped herself and thought. She hadn't seen the other girl with a guy other than Puck in a long time and as Quinn had pointed out, she was having sex with Puck; she wasn't dating him.

"You see? At the wedding, didn't you notice the look she got on her face when my dad and Carole did their speeches? Santana doesn't have something like that. I'm not sure she ever truly had a relationship like that. And you and Finn weren't exactly subtle. For us single people, it felt annoying to have you guys always showing your super relationship in our faces, you know. Not that you were consciously doing it, but can you see how that could anger Santana? Especially since Brittany, the girl she could always go to in order to receive real affection from is now dating Artie and is monogamous. She didn't come back to Santana like she expected her to. Well I think she went back to her for a while but then Puck came back, Santana went to him and Artie showed he was interested in Brit again. The only difference is that Artie was interested in dating Brittany, not just sleeping with her. So Brit left Santana's side in favour of him. That's not something Santana is used to. Actually, normally she's the one who does that and Brit is the one waiting for her. She doesn't appreciate having the tables turn on her."

"Huh. That actually makes sense. Not that I think it excuses how she tends to be deliberately mean to other people but it explains a few things. Like why Brittany looked mad at her during duets."

Kurt nodded. Suddenly, they heard a phone ringing. They looked around and saw that it was Kurt's phone. He opened it and saw '5 missed calls'. They had put the volume of the movie very high and they hadn't notice any of those calls.

"It was Blaine. He called 5 times"

"Did you tell him you were going to be here?"

"No and we had Warbler's practice at 5."

Rachel looked up at him horrified. "You missed Glee practice because of me!" She exclaimed shocked. Missing Glee practice was a crime in Rachel Berry's mind. Although Rachel was a part of New Directions, not the Warblers. She supposed if New Directions functioned like the Warblers she wouldn't be that motivated to show up.

"Just remembered how they're less fun then we were, did you?" Kurt said.

"Yes, but still. You love singing and you love glee."

"I know. But there are priorities. At WMHS nothing was higher on my priority list than Glee, except my Dad of course and probably my friends as well but since all my friends were in Glee club, that point is moot. But now, my friends aren't in my glee club. You're my friend Rachel and you called me for help. I wasn't going to make one little glee practice stop me from helping a friend. I made the obvious and best decision"

Rachel felt her heart swell. There were very few people in her life that would make her their first priority in any circumstances. "Well, you should call him back to tell him you're alive at least" she told her friend. "Especially since Blaine is your friend too. Don't neglect a friend for another"

"You're right, that's what I'll do" Kurt pick up his phone again and dialled Blaine.

/

AN: And that is all for chapter 3! I hope you like it because I haven't written this much in one day in a long while. I've written a lot more than this in one day before but my muse has been lazy this last few months. I think it's because of the winter. No sun tires her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Glee. I feel like a robot every time I say the disclaimer.**

**Chapter 4: **

Kurt's stomach flipped. Why was he suddenly nervous when calling Blaine. I mean bad nervous.

"Hey Blaine. Sorry I didn't answer I…" Kurt stopped, being interrupted by Blaine.

"Yes I know, I'm sorry but…"

" I know how important Regionals are. I've been there before and with Vocal…" and again Blaine interrupted him.

Rachel frowned. Kurt had a really good reason for not being there and Blaine wasn't letting Kurt explain himself. She had overheard a lot of good things about Blaine from Mercedes and Kurt's talks. This didn't sound like the boy Kurt had talked about non-stop with stars in his eyes. Kurt continued to try to explain himself and failed. That was it. Rachel had had an awful day and a bad week, her patience was super thin and she cracked. No one messed with her friend.

She grabbed Kurt's phone and said "Excuse me. Blaine, right?" she asked not giving the older boy any time to answer. "What exactly in the concept of politely and civilly letting someone explain himself before jumping down his throat do you not understand? One would think that with a tuition so high, Dalton Academy would teach their students some basic manners" Kurt's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He was flabbergasted. What in the world was Rachel doing? And oh my Gucci, she was being her old diva self. Which in a way was good but….oh lord he felt bad for Blaine…and for himself. It was kind of embarrassing actually, like he needed someone to protect him. Rachel was so going to be the kind of mother who goes have a talk with the children who are teasing or bullying her child.

"If you cannot treat my friend with basic respect I don't see why I should let this conversation continue any longer. Oh and Kurt is fine and safe by the way, thank you so much for inquiring whether something bad had happened to him for him not to show up at practice which by the way is just a practice. We've just tied at Sectionals, where Kurt performed as flawlessly as usual even though he had known the song and choreography for only a week so I really don't see what the fuss is all about. Maybe you're like Jesse from Vocal Adrenaline was and put Glee before friendship, but Kurt isn't like that you see. He has a heart and when I called him sobbing hysterically, he rushed to my side like any true friend would do. I've just got dumped by my boyfriend; you know what that's like? To feel like your heart has been torn apart? I do and Kurt was nice enough not to leave me alone in my misery to react yet again like a diva which was the reason I lost my boyfriend in the first place. He made sure I wasn't going to do anything to make things even worse and I would appreciate if you could not give him grief over missing one tiny practice to help a friend in need. Now I'm going to give Kurt his phone back but if I think you aren't acting as a gentleman should, I'm hanging up on you!"

Rachel's speech was continuous. Blaine had absolutely no time to give any kind of response; she barely took any breath between sentences. She was being her usual self. It was good to see, but as he took back his phone, Kurt found that he had no clue as to what to say to Blaine after he was chastised by Rachel Berry in her full enthusiastic diva mode.

"Hey Blaine" he said rather sheepishly. "Sorry about that. As I was trying to say, something came up and it was an emergency. Rachel didn't have anyone else she felt comfortable enough with to talk to about this and I'm sure you and the rest of the Warblers can understand how helping a friend is important. As for Regionals, I competed against Vocal Adrenaline last year so trust me when I say I know exactly how important practice is. But it's still a long way from now. No need to stress ourselves so much quite yet." Kurt listened to Blaine talk, nodding. "Alright, I'll see you later"

"I hope he apologized for being so rude!" Rachel said.

"Gucci, Rachel did you have to do that?" Kurt asked groaning. This was so embarrassing. What would Blaine think now?

"Yes!" she exclaimed. "You weren't doing it, Kurt! You weren't stepping up and demanding the respect you deserve! Someone had to make sure your voice was heard and right now you're not your confident self, and it's become clear that you're not able to take the bull by the horn and show everyone what you're made of and make them listen. As your friend, it's my duty to support you through difficult times and if you're not able to be out there in people's face like usual, then I'll do that for you! I have absolutely no problems enunciating other people's faults."

"True, but Blaine is my friend and you went off on him like.. like.."

"Like he had done something wrong?" Rachel completed

"Yes and he didn't" she looked at him sceptically. "Ok so he wasn't letting me talk…"

"And he also disappointed you this week. I didn't do this to destroy your friendship with this Blaine guy. I love that you have him as a friend. But I thought he could use being shaken a bit. I heard you and Mercedes talk about him and what he was doing just now? It didn't seem like his style at all."

"It isn't"

" Then my intervention will make him think about what he was doing. And besides, if anything, he'll just appreciate and admire you more for being able to deal with me!" Rachel said with a smile.

"It's not a hardship you know" Rachel raised an eyebrow "Ok so you're a very intense person and that can be hard to deal with and yes I admit in the past I've had the urge to put a clean sock in your mouth to shut you up, but it's not like I'm an easy person to deal with either. Especially with how I've treated you in the past. I've said a lot of mean comments to you Rachel, but I can't remember you ever doing the same to me. That's something in which we are different. You don't get mean; I do."

"It's true that you have a bitchy side that can be irritating but it's easy for me to forget when I have to deal with Santana every day. And you're not like that with me anymore. And I know my intensity tends to scare people away but I'm sure I haven't scared Blaine away. There has to be a reason why the word courage was under his picture in your locker after all."

"You saw that?" Kurt said blushing. Rachel shrugged. "I'm an observant person."she said.

"Well yes, Blaine would text me the word 'courage' many times a day, so no you're right, you didn't scare him away. But I really wonder what he thinks about you now."

"Probably bad things, but I'm used to it. McKinley has the advantage, I suppose, to prepare you for about anything."

"Lord, I hope not. I don't want things to be that bad after high school."

"They won't be. If only because there's no way you and I are sticking around Lima, Ohio."

"Too true." Kurt said smiling.

"Besides, I was just trying to be a good friend. I guess I might have gone a little overboard trying to protect you." Kurt made a gesture with his fingers to say 'a little'.

"It's okay Rachel. I guess if anything, it'll give me a reason for approaching him when I'm back at Dalton. I haven't seen him much this last week and I feel a little shy about just walking up to him, you know. Everything is so new, it's just a little too much to handle at the same time I guess" Rachel nodded even though internally she thought that there was another reason why Kurt could be shy at approaching another boy who is, according to what she had overheard from Mercedes, also gay. But it was much too soon to bring that subject up with her friend. First, they had to know what was up with Blaine.

"Hopefully, you'll be able to talk more to Blaine now that Sectionals have passed."

"I hope so" Kurt said sadly. Rachel sighed. This really wasn't their week. And now they had to figure out what came next.

"Oh Kurt, what am I supposed to do tomorrow. I can't face Finn right now. He probably hates me."

Kurt gave her a sad face. "I'm sure he doesn't, hun. Not really"

"I hope so" Rachel said in a small voice. "Loosing Jesse and having him egged me last year hurt, but loosing Finn because of something I did…that's so much worse Kurt."

"I can only imagine. But you know there are advantages of being Finn step-brother." Rachel looked at him with a confused expression. "I can go visit him right now without it being weird or out of the ordinary. I haven't talked to him since I left so it'd be normal for me to drop by on my brother unannounced, right? This way he won't know that I know something happened."

"And that's good?"

"Rachel, if Finn knew that I had been here tonight, what do you think he would think?"

Rachel thought for a minute then answered "That you were taking my side over his"

"Exactly! He would think that I was there to defend you and make him change his mind which would make him shut down on me immediately. And then we would both be on his black list."

"Alright. So no talking to Finn about me talking to you. I can do that. It's not as if I'll be talking to him any time soon after all. At Glee today, he was alternating between looking like I had just killed his puppy, which being a vegan I would never do, and looking angry and disappointed. I think that's the worst." She says a single tear leaving her eye and sliding slowly down her cheek. "Knowing that I disappointed Finn, that I didn't measure up to what he expected of me. It's killing me" Kurt took Rachel's hands in his. He knew what she felt. When Blaine had told him not to try so hard, even though the older boy was nice enough about it, Kurt couldn't help but feel like he had disappointed him.

"I wish I could make things better for you but I can't. All I can do is be there for you. I'm not at McKinley anymore, but neither was Blaine and yet since I had met him, he had been the only reason I was able to get through the day. I guess that's why I'm feeling so bad at Dalton. I don't have Blaine's texts to cheer me up anymore. And isn't that kind of sad? That I felt he was more there for me when I wasn't at his school?"

"It's kind of the same with us. We're closer now than ever and now you're at Dalton."

"Oh Irony. You have to love it" Kurt said sarcastically. "Just know that I'm there, at the end of the phone if it becomes too much ok?"

"Ok. Are you going to go see Finn?"

Kurt thought. "Yes, I think I will. He's my step-brother and he also had a shitty day. I'll go see how he's handling things. It'll be hard though. I'll kind of be between you two and that's never a good place to be. Just don't ask me to be your messenger please. I don't think I can do that. I understand why you did what you did, but I also understand Finn's reaction."

"I know. I'm already lucky enough that you haven't condemn me as the most awful, undeserving person in the world. I was actually a little surprise. I had expected you to take Finn's side since I was in the wrong."

"Just because you were in the wrong, it doesn't mean there are sides to be chosen at all, Rach. You're both my friends." Rachel nodded, still grateful. She hoped everyone else in Glee with think like Kurt. Well, Santana won't. She might just jump on the occasion to bitch Rachel. Maybe if she stayed quieter than normal, she won't antagonize Santana and the other girl will simply ignore her. After all, it's not like Santana Lopez knew anything about being monogamous. The other girl had chosen to remain without serious attaches a long time ago.

Rachel hugged Kurt tight and they said their goodbyes. For the rest of the evening, Rachel tried to keep herself occupied as much as possible. She was still sad but at least she wasn't crying anymore. Talking to Kurt had helped a lot. It was good to know that someone had her back.

/

An: Next chapter: A talk with Finn, and then a talk with Blaine!


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Pigs are green and rule the world. Dinosaurs live trapped inside every mountain on Earth. Cars fly and houses eat humans. I own Glee. Elephants are pink and live in giant bubbles that float in the lilac sky. Clear?**

**Chapter 5 **

Finn Hudson was having a horrible day. He was angry, he was hurt…How could she do this to him? After what happened with Quinn! What was wrong with him? And why was it always Puck? The other boy didn't even properly respect women. He went from one to another, never settling down. He wasn't boyfriend material like Finn. So then why was Finn always the one getting screwed over? Maybe he should take a page out of Puck's book. It's not like being in a real relationship had ever done anything for him! Suddenly he was snapped out of his thoughts by the doorbell. If that was Puck, he was going to punch him!

But it wasn't Puck. It was Kurt.

"Hey Finn" the younger boy said with a small smile.

"Uh hey Kurt. What are you doing here Dude. I thought you lived at Dalton now"

"I do" Kurt said entering the house and going to the living room "but I haven't talked to you since leaving for Dalton so I thought I'd drop by"

"But Dalton is an hour away. That's not dropping by, dude."

Kurt opened his mouth but nothing came out. Oh Lord, he really had no clue how to explain himself. Talking to Finn was a lot harder and much more awkward than speaking to Rachel.

"Well I…" Kurt started. Damn. Finn just had to be in one of his perceptive moods.

Finn was confused. It wasn't that he wasn't happy to see his step-bro but it was weird. He could have just called him after all. But then, a thought occurred to Finn.

'Gucci, I should have just called him instead' Kurt thought.

"Rachel called you, didn't she?" Finn said in an angry tone

"umh…" Kurt started. Oh hell, no sense of lying now. "Yes, she did"

"I think you should leave Kurt" Finn said.

"Finn, don't be like that. Yes, Rachel called me, sobbing so hard I thought Karofsky had attacked her or something. She needed a shoulder to cry on. She's my friend. Friends give each other a shoulder to cry on."

"You friend? Rachel? You're always talking bad about her." Finn said, not believing was Kurt was telling him.

"Not for a while now, Finn. I haven't had a problem with Rachel for a while. And her most annoying flaw was her horrible wardrobe. It's been getting better since she started dating you. And ever since Rachel asked me to do a duet with her, there's been this sense of camaraderie between us. It wasn't obvious at school, but Finn, by that point I had already started to push everyone away. Besides, you can't leave Rachel alone when she's feeling extra-emotional. It makes her do stupid things like hooking up with Jesse St-James and what she just did to you. If someone had listened to her rant about how horrible it was that you had lied to her and had just let her explode as only a diva can do, I assure you that what happened with Puck would have never ever happened. Not from Rachel"

"Right, so you're taking her side then. What the hell dude? I'm supposed to be your brother."

Kurt sighed. "Finn sit down" Kurt said in a firm voice. "Sit down" he repeated. Finn stayed standing defying Kurt but eventually sat down beside his step-brother.

"First, you **are **my brother and my friend. Second, I'm not taking Rachel's side. I'm not taking anyone's side. You're both my friends and it's not fair if either of you ask me to choose between the two of you. Third, I completely understand you're reaction Finn. I'm not here to try and make you reconsider the break-up or plead for Rachel. I'm here because my step-brother just found out his girlfriend kissed Noah Puckerman of all people and is hurting and could use someone to talk to. I'm here for you Finn. Not for Rachel. I'm here because I care and worry about you. How are you handling things?"

"How do you think?" he said harshly, but then calmed himself. "I'm sorry dude. It's not your fault. It's not you I'm angry at."

"I know. Feel free to rage. I'm here to listen"

"It's just…why him? Why is it always him? Seriously Kurt, what the hell is it with Puck, huh? Tell me. You like other dudes surely you can tell me what the hell girls see in him!"

Kurt's eyes widened. "Oh hell no! I'm gay, so yes I can tell you that Puckerman is physically hot, but being gay also makes me able to tell you that he's a true jerk! I see the same things as most girl do: a hot body with very little more to offer. He isn't boyfriend material. Or at least, not unless he changes, which I think he's trying to do to a small degree. But most importantly, who he is and how he is has nothing to do with why Rachel kissed him."

"Of course it does! She didn't just kiss anybody Kurt! She kissed him!"

"Ah huh. And which boy outside of Puckerman bothered to speak to Rachel this last week?" Finn frowned. He hadn't seen Rachel talking with any boy.

"Exactly. Finn, she kissed Noah because he was the only one who talked to her when she was upset. Now why she kissed another boy, she's already told you. She was hurt, and let her diva-magnitude emotions take control of her and lost any sort of judgment she possessed and kissed another boy. It's bad, but it has nothing to do personally with Puck. She didn't kiss him because he's attractive Finn. She's been there, done that. And even then, it was only because she couldn't have you. If she wanted Puck in any way, she wouldn't have been dating you. She would have tried her chances with him. But she didn't because believe it or not, that girl has eyes only for you. She's crazy about you Finn. At least don't doubt that. There's nothing wrong with you. I mean come on, I used to have a crush on you, do I look like someone with bad taste?

"Uhm no" Finn said a tiny bit uncomfortable. Kurt was sort of his brother now so his old crush on him was awkward.

"Wow, that was awkward. Let's refrain from bringing that part of our past, shall we? 'Cause you're my brother and ewwwww. Thinking of you like that is gross. No offence."

"None taken, dude. I was thinking the same thing" Finn and Kurt laughed.

"So no more talk about 'what does Puckerman have that I don't' ok?" Kurt said. "Because I assure you that it's Puck who should be asking himself that question about you and the answer to that question would be quite long!"

"Yeah, thanks dude. It's just…Quinn…."

"I know. You never truly got over what she did to you, did you?" Finn shook his head. "Understandable. It was really quite horrible, especially since she lied about the paternity for so long. You really felt betrayed when Rachel told you what she had done"

"You have no idea man" Finn said, tears forming in his eyes. "I felt so…there isn't a way for me to describe how much she hurt me. And god Kurt, it hurt more than with Quinn, because with her, I had that relief deep inside about things being over between us at last, because I wasn't having a baby after all and I think I already liked Rachel then! And that's what hurts so much! I've loved Rachel for a long time. I loved her when she was with that dick St-James, and she's just….I thought she was different. I never thought Rachel would be capable of something like this. I thought she was safe. I thought she really loved me for me and she made me try to be better than I was you know. But then she pulls something like this. Kurt, she kissed another guy with the intention of maybe going further. Puck was the one who stopped it! Puck! Not my girlfriend who supposedly loves me! I felt so stupid! I felt like someone had just taken my heart from my chest and started hitting it with a baseball bat!" Finn was shaking all over. Kurt felt so bad. He hated this. He hated seeing Rachel and Finn in that state and there really was nothing that he could do to make things better for them. Only time heals the bleeding scars of heartbreak.

"I never thought she would do this either." Kurt said softly. "She loves you so much. When she looks at you, I've always felt like she believed you could do no wrong, and that you invented singing. That kind of love and devotion is rare, especially in high school. But as much as I didn't expect this from her, I also kind of understand it too."

"Well I don't" Finn said abruptly. Kurt gave him a sad smile.

"Of course you don't Finn. You aren't like Rachel and I. You don't react or see things the way we do"

"Are you comparing yourself to Rachel?" the taller boy asked surprised.

"Well, as much as we both hated to say it in the past, Rachel and I have a lot in common. And I mean a lot. Think about it Finn. You've been to family dinners with me. What do I speak about? What is my taste in music and movies? How do I act when I'm enthusiastic or outraged about something?" Finn thought for a minute, then his eyes widened.

"Oh my God. You're just like Rachel!"

Kurt nodded. "Why do you think Rachel and I were so darn competitive? Because we like to sing the same songs, we're good at singing the same type of songs, we're both extravagant and exuberant….Mercedes, she has a wonderful, underused voice. And she will fight with Rachel over a solo, but not if it's a Broadway solo. All those more extravagant show-tunes, the other girls aren't that motivated in doing them. They like Pop, or ballads but the kind of songs where you can have a douzen dancers around you and there's a lot of fla-fla? No. They enjoy watching Rachel or I make our show but it's not their style. But put a solo from Rent on the table, and Rachel and I are in a catfight in matter of seconds, trying to scratch each other's eyes out! That's why I can understand Rachel's reaction and you can't. I'd like to say that I would never do what she did, but to be truthful? I really can't! Especially since Rachel's reaction is a lot more like me than her!"

"I don't see you kissing someone who's not your boyfriend, Kurt"

"I truly wish I never do. But I'm bitchy, Finn. And unlike Rachel, I can be vindictive too. Just think of the makeover I gave her! If I was pissed at and felt betrayed by my boyfriend, can I honestly say that I wouldn't want revenge? No, I can't because I probably would want to make him feel bad. I don't know if I would do it. A lot of it has to do with opportunity. Rachel had the opportunity of it and unlike me, she didn't have anyone to bitch about you with. Me? My boyfriend lies to me about sleeping with someone else in the past, I'll have Mercedes to talk to and to say that she'll cut him for me if I ask her to. And just that, that would calm me down enough not to do anything stupid. Gucci, I wished I had been at McKinley this week. Or that Rachel had called me before the fact." Of course he also wished he had been at McKinley for a lot more reasons, but he'd rather not think about that now.

"Although, one good thing about Rachel and I is that, no matter how huge a mistake we have made and how scared we are of the repercussions, we'd always respect our boyfriends enough to tell them the truth about it."

"Yeah that's already more than Quinn did, but yet, somehow it doesn't make things any better. I still feel so betrayed. I should be grateful that Rachel told me the truth but I can't be. Especially since she acted like it wasn't the end of the world, like it was equal to me and Santana!"

Kurt shook his head "She knows it's not deep down, but we can't blame her for panicking at the idea of loosing you"

"I guess. But she didn't seem to get how much she hurt me"

"It's possible she didn't at the time. What Rachel did was very impulsive. She didn't take the time to think. I think the same can be said about when she told you the truth. By the time I got to her house, I think she had gotten a lot more perspective on the whole thing. And something you need to take into account is that Rachel isn't a compulsive cheater. She doesn't have monogamy issues like Puckerman or Lopez. Just like me, she's a one lover only kind of person. But sadly we're all human and can make big, hurtful and awful mistakes. So I get what happened with Rachel to make her act like that. But trust me, I get why you broke-up with her. I would have done the same with any boyfriend of mine. Whether I would have forgiven him and taken him back, I can't know unless it happens to me and for that I need to have a boyfriend in the first place, so I think I'm safe for now. As for you, well you'll see. Right now, you have to focus on yourself. She hurt you a lot and you're in pain right now. You need to come to terms with what happened with Quinn and Rachel. I don't know how you'll do that. But it's something you must do. And don't speak to Rachel ok? Don't be mean to her, because I know that even though she hurt you, being mean to her will also hurt you, but don't force yourself to interact with her because of Glee. Talk to . Tell him you really, really can't be paired up with Rachel for a while…and that Puck can't be paired with her either because that would hurt both you and her." Kurt added as an afterthought. He swore Puckerman had a gift to make shit happen around him.

Finn nodded. "Yeah, I really don't feel like singing with Rachel at all. Actually I don't like seeing her, period. I can't…I still can't believe she would do something like that. I trusted her and now…I can't even look at her."

"So you really don't trust her anymore?"

"No" Finn said firmly, sure of himself. "I really don't trust Rachel at all anymore. She killed any trust I had for her when she made out with Puck. I don't….I don't think I'll trust her again. It'd be like trusting Quinn again. I don't think she's gonna cheat on Sam at all, I trust her not to do that to **him **but I could never, ever feel that way about her if she was my girlfriend instead of Sam's."

Kurt felt his heart drop. When he had decided to go see Finn, he hadn't expected to get a sense of whether the older boy would take back Rachel or not. It was much too soon to tell. With time, he might forgive her and want to date her again, but right now the pain was much too raw to even envision it. But now…..The way he talked about trust and how he trusted his friend Quinn with Sam but could never trust Quinn as a girlfriend….that didn't give Kurt much hope about Finchel being an official couple again. 'Oh my. How is Rachel going to deal with Finn never taking her back?' Kurt thought. No, he couldn't think like that. If he did, Rachel would know it the next time she sees him and that'd just break her heart anew and Kurt refused to be responsible for that. No matter how bad things were, there was always some hope. And lord he sounded like Rachel. Kurt was a pessimistic person; Rachel was a hopeful one. He knew she would hope that Finn would take her back until the very end. Well, there was nothing he could do and nothing was sure until Finn had actually forgiven Rachel. If he forgave her but couldn't see himself as ever being her boyfriend again….well Kurt would deal with that heartbreak when the time would come. Although in the mean time, maybe showing Rachel that there were amazing boys out there other than Finn could help a little. Right now, she truly believed that no one could be as good as Finn and no one could love her like Finn did. Finding a couple of guys who could show Rachel that they appreciated her would do wonders for her self-esteem issues and would make a potential definitive, forever break-up with Finn a tiny bit less devastating. At least she wouldn't feel like there was absolutely no way anyone would ever love her again. But he wished they'd get back together. Well no actually, he wished none of this had happened. They made each other happy and that's all he wanted for them. So if coming back together wouldn't make one of them truly happy, then he didn't want them together. Oh why couldn't everyone be happy! He swore there was a curse on McKinley. There was just so much drama there! Now he knew where Soaps writers got their ideas from!

Kurt and Finn continued talking for a while but they had changed the topic of the conversation. Instead Finn had told Kurt what had been going on at Glee Club. He was surprised to hear that had yelled at Rachel. That made him frowned; it wasn't okay for a teacher to do that, especially not a teacher who thinks he's so much better than Sue Sylvester is! Which in certain ways he truly isn't! It's to Sue that Kurt should have gone to when the bullying started getting worst. She didn't really dislike him. After all, he had participated in making the Cheerios win Nationals again last year. Soon, the time came for Kurt to leave and get back to Dalton Academy. Once there, Kurt looked at the building. It was so beautiful and yet now, it felt so cold. When he had first stepped foot at Dalton, there hadn't been one single thing that hadn't look completely awesome, but now…

"Kurt, finally you're back" Blaine said, spotting him from where he was seated.

"Blaine!" Kurt said offering the older boy a small smile. "Sorry about my friend Rachel. She had a really bad week and I'm afraid she's become quite overprotective of me with everything that happened recently"

"No, no it was fine really." Blaine said with a charming smile. Gucci, was that boy ever not charming? "She had a point actually. I should have let you talk. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I know the Warblers mean a lot to you" Kurt said. He tried to keep the sadness out of his tone but he didn't quite succeed. He really hadn't expected Blaine to react the way he had. He had feared it would happen, but he hadn't thought it would.

"No, I mean yes, the Warblers mean a lot to me, but I wasn't annoyed at you, not really. It's just Wes and other seniors kind of got on my back over you not being there, you know. Missing Warblers practice….Kurt, it's just something we don't do okay? I get that McKinley was different…"

"I never had any reason to miss a Glee practice at McKinley." Kurt interrupted him automatically.

He had to stop himself from slapping his hand over his mouth. He hadn't meant to say that. He was just really tired right now. He hoped Blaine would take it as him never having to help a friend before and not as something else. Because there were two meanings to that statement. Yes, he had never had to miss Glee to help a friend before because all his friends were in the Glee club. However, he had also never missed Glee at McKinley because he truly felt like an active and necessary part of the team. Who else would give Rachel a true challenge or make her shut up without truly hurting her feelings like Santana would? Who else would have the patience needed to teach Finn the dance movements? Mike didn't have the time; he already had to teach everybody else. Who else would fight Mr. Shue over doing Britney Spears like absolutely everyone wanted to do? But here, in the Warblers, he didn't even think his absence would have been noticed. Except that he was the new kid, and the Warblers were so formal and organized that the council probably took attendance mentally before every single meeting. Argh!

"Yes, I get that you had a friend in need and you went to help her. And that's commendable, really."

"But?"

"But nothing" Blaine said, but his smile seemed false, or strained.

"Then why do I get the impression you're upset with me for not going to the meeting?"

"Well…it's just not something we do. It's kind of…Kurt I don't want to be mean but what you did? It's kind of rude. Especially since they let you in without auditioning first"

"I never asked for any favours Blaine" Kurt said, his tone a little sharper. "And am I talking to Blaine right now or am I talking to Wes?"

Blaine looked at him like a child caught stealing a cookie. "Yes okay, I might be parroting what Wes said"

"And do you agree with him?"

"Well kind of. I mean not really. I…" Blaine wasn't really sure what to say. He really didn't know how to do this. He knew Kurt had had a bad time recently and he wanted to make things as good as he could for the younger boy. That was why he had convinced Wes to let **him** talk to Kurt alone about missing the meeting instead of him being summoned by the whole council and given a verbal reprimand. He really didn't think Kurt could handle that right now and really, Kurt had had a good reason.

"You what Blaine?"

"I just…really don't want to get between you and Wes okay?"

"Alright, I can understand that" He felt the same way about Finn and Rachel after all.

"And I do think that your reason was a valid and good one. However, I get how Wes could think that this was disrespectful to us. I mean , Kurt! You didn't even call us in advance to tell us that you weren't going to show up. You could have come to me when Rachel called you to tell me you wouldn't be there or so that I could help you find a way to help her without having to miss practice."

"You make it sound like Warblers practice is more important than Rachel! Blaine, it's not. I get that Glee is important ok? Where I come from, Glee was the only thing keeping me sane, the only part of my day I could truly enjoy. But if Wes or David were not at Dalton and one of them called you, devastated, and you did not know if they were going to do something stupid or not, tell me you wouldn't rush to their side. Tell me you would tell them to wait 2-3 hours for you while you went to your Warblers practice!"

Blaine looked down. Kurt had a point; he would probably rush to his friend's side. But he would still have told someone about it.

"I get that I made a mistake when I didn't tell you guys in advance. Really, I get it and I'm sorry, ok. But I'm not sorry I went to talk to Rachel. You have no idea what Finn means to her and what state of mind she was in when I got there. She made a huge mistake and you know why she made it? Because she didn't have anyone by her side to listen to her and let her vent and rant and express her emotions. So she did something stupid, going overboard and loosing sight of wrong and right, letting her pain overwhelm her judgement. If one person had talked to her, truly talked to her, she would have never ever kissed Puckerman. She did it because I wasn't there for her. Now tonight, she was even more upset than that day when she kissed Puck, what kind of stupid thing do you think she could have done? You might not get it but I do, because Rachel and I have a lot in common. And you resenting the fact that I went to her side without thinking when you would do the same for your friends, it's hypocritical Blaine. And I really never thought you were a hypocrite."

"I'm not!" Blaine exclaimed. "I told you I get why you went to help her."

"Then why are you so upset with me?"

"Because….because…damn it Kurt. The Warblers have been really nice to you, letting you enter without auditioning and letting you audition for a solo even though you're new. And we feel like you aren't grateful for any of it!"

'I'm not' Kurt thought 'I would have rather having never done that stupid solo considering how it had made me feel afterwards' Kurt put his head in his hands. He couldn't do this tonight. He was exhausted, both physically and emotionally.

"Look, I'm not here to blame you or scold you…"

Kurt laughed bitterly. "Really? You're not exactly doing a good job of that Blaine"

"Well you don't exactly make it easy?" Blaine said a little awkwardly. He didn't want to make it sound like a reproach; it really wasn't one. It's just…it wasn't easy to tell Kurt that he had made a mistake when he looked so sad, small and dejected already. "I guess I'm not really good at this. Normally the council does this so…"

"Then why isn't the council doing this?" Kurt asked, his voice breaking. Why was Blaine subjecting him to this? If the council could have handled it, why was it his friend who was telling him these awful things.

"Because I told them not to. I thought if it came from me, you would take it better"

Kurt looked at him in shock. He started laughing bitterly again"Really? You thought….I can't believe this." Kurt said, his tone getting angrier. "You thought that if the criticism, anger and blame came from the only friend I have in this entire school, the only one I have at my side, it would be better?" Kurt screamed. What had Blaine been thinking? "Are you really that clueless?" Kurt exploded. He knew he'd regret saying this but darn he was a mess right now. Too little sleep and way too many emotions.

Blaine felt a rock drop in his stomach. He hadn't expected that Kurt would be so upset over this. He hadn't meant to sound angry, because he really wasn't angry at Kurt. How could the younger boy think he was? Of course, Blaine wasn't angry at him. The other guys had just kept talking about it over and over and kept criticising and they felt like Kurt was his responsibility so it was kind of his fault too and it just had really gotten to him. He hadn't meant to go off like this on Kurt.

"Kurt…"

"No please don't Blaine." Kurt begged, tired. "Not tonight ok? You can scream at me all you want tomorrow, but I really can't take this tonight, after the evening I had, from you of all people." Blaine reached for him, trying to keep him from leaving so he could apologize but Kurt pushed his hand away and left. That had never happened before. Kurt had never rejected his touch before now. Blaine felt bad. He had really upset his friend. Darn. He should have just let the council handle it. But he had thought they would be too harsh on Kurt and they probably would have been. He had thought he would make things better for his friend. He guessed he was wrong.

/

AN : And that's it for now! Hope you liked it! I'm trying to get as much written as I can because starting 3pm tomorrow, basically every minutes should be busy until Monday night. Why oh why did I tell my friend yes when she asked me to participate in the Christmas play? Oh yes. I thought it would be fun *head hits the desk*


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: sighed, why do these exist? Seriously if you write fanfic about it, doesn't it already imply that you don't own nit? Why would you try to fix something you had written in the first place?**

**Chapter 6**

Kurt entered his bedroom and threw himself on his bed. He was really tired. In more than one ways. Getting the third degree for missing one little Glee practice really wasn't what he needed right now and it really didn't make him feel like he belonged in the group. Again, he was left feeling like he was in the wrong and they were in the right and there was just something wrong with him.

Suddenly, his phone vibrated. He had a text message. Hope filled his heart thinking it was Blaine but no, it was Rachel.

_My six__th sense is tingling. Is it for you? If yes, call me. _Kurt laughed. Sometimes he really almost believed that Rachel had a sixth sense.

"So my gut feeling was right" Rachel answered her phone right to the point. Her voice was still sad.

"Yeah, I guess you can say that" Kurt said softly. He sounded so sad it made Rachel's heart constrict.

"Kurt what happened?"

"Blaine" Kurt said. Rachel could hear the tears in his voice. "We had a fight. Apparently missing practice is not something done here, it's like committing a crime really and Blaine thought it would be a good idea if he was the one to tell me that instead of having the council tell me like they usually do"

"Ouch." Rachel winced. That had had to hurt. "What was he thinking? That's a thousand times worse. He's your friend, of course it's worse." Seriously what had that boy been thinking. He was Kurt's only support system at that school. He should support him or at least remain neutral.

Kurt laughed bitterly. "Yeah I know. It's just…it happened again you know. I felt like there was something wrong with me. He didn't mean to make me feel that way. I could see it on his face before I left. He wanted to apologize. I think the council gave him a lot of shit tonight because of what I did, made him responsible for me or something and he was lashing out because of that but…"

"But it hurt you because he's your friend" Kurt nodded "And you thought that if the council had a real problem with your absence, you could count on Blaine to defend you."

"Yeah" Kurt said holding back tears. "I really thought he'd understand Rachel, that he'd take my side. But he took theirs. Or at least he agreed with them. He might have defended me to them I don't know but…"

"It doesn't make it hurt any less"

"No it really doesn't. Especially since he probably would have done something similar for one of his friends. And Rach, he's all I have here. I haven't had the opportunity to make friends yet. Things have been crazy since I've got here and after the solo audition, I felt so bad about myself that I was too shy to approach anyone. Me? Not having enough courage to talk to people! What's happened to me? I confronted Karofsky of all people and yes that made things only 100 times worse but…"

"You had the guts to do it"

"Because of Blaine" Kurt clarified. "Because he sent me these texts saying 'courage'. And every time he did, I felt courageous, you know. How is it that now that I'm in the same school as the one who inspired my courage in the first place, I'm suddenly less brave than at McKinley?"

Rachel sighed. Of all the things that could have went wrong when Kurt went back to Dalton, it just had to involve Blaine of all people. Couldn't her friend catch a break? When Mercedes had talked to Tina about her supper with Kurt and Blaine, she had made it sound like the two of them were two peas in a pod. The two boys just seemed to click and really get each other. Like there was some sort of connection between them.

"You know I really thought there was some sort of connection between Blaine and me. That he just simply got me. But now, it's like he doesn't get me at all anymore. I miss him Rachel. I really, really miss him. And the worse is that…" Kurt stopped to blow his nose. Gucci he must really be exhausted if he was so emotional. Then again, it was to be expected. Being in an unfamiliar place, Kurt hadn't really slept well since arriving to Dalton.

"He's right there, meters away from you instead of miles and yet he's never seen so distant" Rachel completed

"Exactly." Kurt responded. " You understand me better than he does! If you had asked me who between the two of you would understand me more two weeks ago, it would have been Blaine." Kurt sighed "I don't know maybe things will get better now, with the stress of Sectionals behind us"

"Exactly. And if it doesn't, don't despair. Talk to him, Kurt. When you were here in Lima, you felt like you could tell him anything. Don't let that change too. Try and speak to him about what you're feeling."

"I don't think I can do that." Kurt said hesitantly.

"Why not?"

"Because if he doesn't understand me or disagrees with me…I don't know if I could take it."

"Ah. We're talking of your opinion of the Warblers aren't we?"

"Yes" Kurt said hesitantly "I…I'm scared he won't understand how I feel. I mean he's the one who told me not to try so hard. Does that sound like he would understand how much that hurt coming from him? Do you think if I told him that he made me feel like he was telling me I shouldn't be myself, that he'd agree with my opinion? That he'd understand?"

"Not really no. But that's why you have to do things gradually. Try to talk to him about certain problems that aren't related to the Warblers and be yourself. You're fabulous, fashion-loving, Broadway-fangirl self. Talk to him about a song you really like and get his opinion on it. Or just sing a song when he's close by but the other Warblers aren't so he can see that your performance of 'Don't cry for me Argentina' wasn't at all you trying to show off. Little steps. Tell him how good singing certain songs make you feel, so that he sees these songs as being a positive thing, so he understands how much they represent what you are."

"And if he hates these songs that represent me so well?" Kurt said in a heart breaking voice.

"Oh Kurt he won't. If he does then he never really understood you at all and was never a true friend. But I've heard things from Mercedes. At Breadsticks, you two acted like two peas in a pod! There is absolutely no way that this boy won't like your true self. He already saw your true self and was fangirling with it! You know what I think the problem is?"

"No. What?"

"The other boys. The Warblers. Kurt, why would a guy be very similar to you when you're alone with him and one of **your** friends, but be different when you start going to the same school? Why would the Blaine who texted you from Dalton be different than the Blaine you see in Dalton? What's the difference about the two situations?"

"It was over the phone, not in person, so his friends weren't involved at all."

"Exactly! You know sometimes someone who tells another person to be courageous doesn't have that courage either. And sometimes we act different in private than in groups! Ok not you and me. We never change ourselves because we love ourselves and think everyone should just accept how fabulous we are, something you really, really need to keep repeating in your head, Kurt. Seriously. The boy I saw tonight wasn't our Kurt and we already lost you to Dalton, there is no way we're losing you completely. The bullies never made you back down and stop being Kurt Hummel. Don't let Dalton change you either! There's nothing wrong with you. You could improve some things but if they make you feel like there's something wrong or that you should change to fit in, you are to at the very least mentally tell them to f-off." Kurt laughed at that.

"Alright, alright. I get it. No letting stiff private boys with a huge stick up their butt change me in any way. I'm fabulous and if they can't deal with it, they're not worth my time."

"Now that sounds like the Kurt Hummel I know and love"

"Thank you Rachel, really. I really needed this tonight after my fight with Blaine"

"Try to talk to him only when he's alone from now on."

"He was alone tonight"

"Huh. Then talk to him only when you're out of Dalton or only over the phone. Obviously he has no problem being himself when he texts."

"I guess that could work. I do miss our texting a lot."

"Well there you go. Text him right now. Tell him…well I don't know what you can tell him but you'll figure it out. Now go do that. And wish me luck for tomorrow. We don't have Glee so I don't know how I'm supposed to just get through the day"

"Have you talked to your fathers about what happened? Maybe they could let you stay home."

"I'd like that, but speaking to them about it would open the can of worms and I think I cried enough for one day."

"Hang in there Rachel. And don't be friendly with Puck. I know you need a friend right now and that Puck with his Jewish solidarity is a good candidate but it will just make things much worse. If you really, really need someone to be there for you, go speak to Artie or better Brittany. I know you may think she's mean because she hangs out with Santana but she's truly a sweetheart. Just tell her that you're really sad and that her babygaydoll told you that you could count on her to be there for you. She'll help. Make sure to use my nickname so she knows I'm seriously counting on her to help"

Rachel stifled a laugh. "Baby gay doll?"

"Don't ask. I won't tell. What happens at a Cheerios competition, stays at that Cheerios competition"

"Oooookkkkaaaayyyy" Rachel said, still trying not to laugh.

"And make sure that when you use her nickname for me no one is around to hear it! Even Santana doesn't know about this and Brit normally tells her everything ok?"

"Right. Talk to Brittany if things get too bad and make sure no one hears your embarrassing nickname"

"She thought it was cute"

"Oh it is! But it's also funny!"

"I hate you"

"Sorry Kurt but that won't work anymore. I know the truth now. And I love you back by the way"

Kurt rolled his eyes "Alexander McQueen save me! Rachel Berry likes me!"

"Ah, ha. Don't think I don't know you're trying to make our conversation last longer so you can avoid texting Blaine, mister! Now I'm hanging up and you're going to text that confused friend of yours. You know we should totally find him a nickname! I'll try to think about one. Now go!"

"Alright. But if this makes things worse, I'm blaming you missy."

"Fair enough. Courage Kurt."

"Courage to you too Rachel. Bye"

Kurt took a deep breath to try and calm his nerves. He looked at his phone. What was he supposed to say?

Blaine had gone back to his room after Kurt had left and had taken out his ipod to listen to Katy Perry. Unfortunately, even Teenage Dream hadn't been enough to cheer him up. Actually, it had made things even worse. He needed to talk to Kurt. But things had gone terribly last time he had done so.

Kurt lied on his bed, face down with his pillow over his head. He hadn't been able to text Blaine. Suddenly, he heard his phone vibrate again. It was probably Rachel checking in to see if he had talked to Blaine or not.

Kurt picked up the phone and read,

_I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. __I was having a bad night too. Wes and co were on my case and I took it out on you. I'm not mad at you. I think it was really nice of you to go help your friend. Please don't be mad at me. :( _

It was from Blaine

_**I'm not mad at you. I was hurt. I felt like you thought I had done **__**something really wrong when I didn't think I had. **_Kurt answered.

_I'm sorry Kurt. I understand how you can think you didn't do anything wrong. I should have just told my inner-Wes to shut it and simply tell you that missing practice was not well seen and could get you in trouble so you should try never to do it again._

_**Why is it that in text you know exactly what you need to say?**_ Kurt asked him. Couldn't have Blaine simply told him that before? It wouldn't have sounded like an accusation if he had formulated things this way. Rachel was right. He should text Blaine more and not talk to him when he was being the Warblers' Blaine. He'd get less hurt that way.

_I guess I had time to think about it. Maybe it means I need to think more before speaking._

_**Maybe you do.**_

_**Sorry. **_Kurt wrote after not receiving any answer._** I didn't mean that. I haven't slept much this week and I get bitchy when I'm exhausted. Sorry **_

_It's okay, I understand. I know it wasn't personal. Just like our conversation earlier wasn't personal to you. _

_**Good to know. I was afraid it might be. **__**I…Blaine am I your friend? **_Kurt sent and then instantly regretted it. Why oh why had he sent that?.

_Of course you are? Have I made you feel like you aren't. _Kurt thought about that_._ Had he been feeling like Blaine didn't think of him as a friend? On one side, Blaine was the one who took the time to explain what had been wrong with his solo and he had came immediately when Kurt had thought Pavarotti was sick or dying. He'd been nice to Kurt. But then again, Blaine was nice to everyone. That was just part of his charming personality. And they hadn't talked much this week and one of the few times they did, they had fought.

_I'm so sorry Kurt. Of course you're my friend. Whatever happens that won't change. I told you, I'm not upset with you and even if I was, you would still be an important friend of mine._

Kurt felt his heart flutter a little. Blaine thought he was important. It was so good to hear after this last week. Perhaps Rachel was right and things would settle down with Blaine. If Blaine thought Kurt was important, then he wouldn't stop being his friend even if he disagreed with Kurt's opinion or didn't like the same things as him. And if things went better with Blaine, then the whole experience of Dalton would get better. It was the loneliness he had had the most trouble with. But Rachel was right. He had to get out there and be himself and make new friends and those who did not like his fabulous self could take a hike! Kurt and Blaine said their goodbyes shortly after and both went to sleep feeling much better about the fight they had had.

/

An: Yeah! Another chapter before drama repetition and school stop me from writing! Hope you liked!


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Yes of course , because Ryan Murphy would totally have a user name that starts with Kitty. Anyway, it's not this Kitty who owns anything even resembling Glee. Sad reality.**

**An: HATES ! A super nice reviewer at pointed out that in chap 5 there was a missing. I thought I had deleted it by mistake but NO! DELETED ! I know because his name appears in this chapter and when I was looking it over to verify it looked ok, guess what I saw? A blank where should have been. So I checked my word document and was there! How come it's in the doc I upload on this site but then disappears here? Freaky.**

**Chapter 7**

Blaine woke up at the usual time the next morning. His fight with Kurt was still fresh on his mind even though he had apologized and the younger man had seemed to have forgiven him. Blaine felt bad because he had truly hurt his friend's feelings and had made Kurt doubt their friendship. Blaine vowed not to let this happen again. He was not going to get involved in Warbler's business with Kurt. Under the pressure of the other boys about dealing with Kurt's absence, Blaine had acted exactly like he had been scared the council would. From now on, Blaine wouldn't take sides. Even if he agreed with the council, he wouldn't verbalise his disapproval to Kurt. Or at least, he'll find a nice manner of saying things. Quickly, he dressed and went down to eat breakfast. Even though they had made up over the phone, Blaine was still a bit nervous at the idea of seeing Kurt this morning. He hated to see the boy upset, especially if he had something to do with it.

"Hey Blaine" Wes said, arriving with David at the breakfast table. "Did you see Kurt yesterday?" Blaine looked down.

"Yeah" Blaine said softly. 'Unfortunately' Blaine thought. He really should have let the council handle it.

"I take it from your tone that it didn't go well" Wes deduced. His friend's silence was all the answer he needed.

"I know it was a hard thing to do but it had to be done" David sighed. "We have rules and he needs to know that. Besides, it came from you so it was better."

Blaine laughed a little bitterly. "Yeah you'd think that would you?" His friends frowned. "Apparently the fact that I, his only friend here, was the one telling him all this only made things that much worse."

"Oh" David said. "Well, how exactly did you go about it?"

"I don't know I just…" Blaine shrugged. "I guess my tone must have been a little harsh. But you guys kept hassling me last night about Kurt not coming, like it was my fault and I was tired and…"

"And you made Kurt think that you were personally angry or disappointed in him? Dude, that boy looks at you like you're his saviour. Of course, that wouldn't go well."

"Well, thank you David for turning the knife in the wound! I get it okay? I'll just let the council handle these things because apparently I'm not good at them."

"Well we do decide in advance what we are going to say exactly, word by word, so we're not offensive in any way." Wes said "I just assumed you would do the same thing"

"Rule number 6 of our friendship: Never assume anything about Blaine" David repeated. Wes and Blaine just glared at him.

"Anyway, it had to be done" Wes said. "What Kurt did was wrong and it needed to be dealt with as soon as possible. And though it might have hurt more coming from you, I'm sure it had a stronger impact than the council would have had and that we will not have further problems from Kurt" Wes said and David nodded. Blaine however didn't say anything. He personally didn't think that what Kurt had done was truly a problem. If it had happened a couple of times sure, but it was just a one time thing. He felt like he should try to defend Kurt a little.

"Well he didn't mean any disrespect and he was sincerely sorry he hadn't given us at least some warning. He really thought he was doing the right thing, guys. Can you guys really say that if your girlfriend or one of your best friend called you in a really bad state you would tell them you couldn't be bothered to help them because you have Glee practice? He did well at Sectionals with very little time to practice. This won't cost us Regionals."

"But it's the principle of the thing Blaine" Wes said. "We are at Dalton, not at his old school. There are rules and etiquette here that we have to respect. He needs to learn that. If we're too permissive with him, we're only making things worse for him. The Warblers aren't the only ones with rules. This entire school has them and he has to be made aware of them so he can acclimate himself and fit in as soon as possible. It's for the best. Otherwise, he will feel like an outsider and that is not okay" Blaine nodded.

He knew his friend had a point but he was scared that they had overwhelmed Kurt with all these rules and that the younger boy was feeling more out of place than ever. Having so many rules was really difficult to adapt to and they shouldn't force all of them down his throat all at once.

"Yes but don't you think that shoving all these rules down his throat will make him see those rules as negatives instead of seeing them as guidelines that lead us through our studies so we can achieve our true potential?" Blaine said.

"Not really no" Wes answered. That guy really was a stickler for the rules.

"Maybe" David said. "I supposed if he's really unused to rules it could overwhelm him or make the school seem old fashioned, which has a bad connotation to it. But I'm sure double oh spy is doing just fine. It'll take time to adjust but he'll do it, just like you did" Blaine nodded at David's words but the situations were different. Yes he had needed time to adapt but he had never been as sad as Kurt looked during his adaptation period. And he had made instant friends with David and Wes. Kurt had told Blaine he was his only friend at Dalton. "Talking about our ex-spy…" David said pointing to the door.

"Hey Kurt, over here." David waved.

Kurt had had a good enough sleep but it had taken time to fall asleep in the first place. Soon after his conversation with Blaine, the warm gooey feelings it had made him feel had faded away and had been replace by the dread of the next day. He really hoped he didn't have to see any of the Warblers. He was judged enough at McKinley, he really didn't need people to look down on him here too. And for something so darn stupid too. So he wasn't there at practice. Big deal. If he had missed Glee without telling anyone at McKinley, everyone would have been worried and would have filled his phone with a dozens of calls and texts, all asking if he was alright, or is he was stuck in a locker or porta-potty. That was it. No blame or accusation about not showing up; only worry and friendship. Blaine kept telling him that he would adapt to things here but he really wasn't so sure anymore. How can you adapt to something when you can't help but think that what you had before was a hundred times better. Oh not the school environment. Being able to tell himself when he heard a loud noise that it wasn't someone coming to get him and actually know deep down that that was true was really making wonders for him. At McKinley he had been absolutely terrified all the time. And that's why he just had to get out of there. But if it hadn't been for Karofsky, Kurt would have taken slushies and dumpster dives over what he had at Dalton. Because at least in McKinley he had friends and Glee club to fall back on. He could count on every member of New Directions if he was in trouble, even those who weren't his friends. Kurt had little trust for anyone in the Warblers except for Blaine and even then, that trust had gotten smaller since getting here. So when David of all people waved at him (really shouldn't it have been Blaine waving at him?) Kurt couldn't help but groaned. The other boy was loud so there was no way Kurt could pretend he hadn't heard him. He didn't want to see or talk to any Warblers but if he didn't sit with them now, they'd complain about him being rude again and everything would just get worst. Darn it, if you deleted Karofsky's existence from McKinley, then Kurt felt much more at ease there than here. Kurt sighed. He didn't want to do this. *vibrate* Uh. He had a text.

"_Too late for second-guessing Too late to go back to sleep. It's time to trust your instincts. Close your eyes and leap" Head high mister! You own that school and I own McKinley. Courage Kurt and remember to smile. Xxx_

Kurt's face lit up with a huge smile. Rachel. She really knew exactly what he needed right now. It probably helped a lot that she probably needed the exact same thing. Walking down to where the trio was sitting, Kurt text his friend back.

"_**Oh no, not you. You will survive. As long as you know how to love, I know you will stay alive**_._**" Courage. Don't let it bring you down either. Don't forget I'm here for you, hun. Xxx**_

"Hey Kurt" Blaine said as took his seat beside him. "How are you doing?" he asked tentatively.

"Uhm?" Kurt asked "Oh sorry, I was answering Rachel. I'm doing well. I've slept more than I have in the past week so I'm hopeful about being less exhausted from now on" Kurt said. Then he thought a little and added " There's some drama from Mckinley though. I swear that school has a soap opera curse on it"

"Maybe you should let your friends deal with their own problems. It doesn't concern you anymore and they need to learn to deal on their own." Wes said.

"Is that what you told Blaine when he rushed to Mckinley to intervene with Karofsky instead on letting me deal with him on my own?"

"Kurt!" Blaine exclaimed. Kurt looked at his friend with a 'what?' written all over his friend. "Don't be rude" Blaine whispered in his hear. Kurt looked at him in shocked. He wasn't being rude! For the first time ever, Kurt gave Blaine one of his bitch faces.

"If that's what you call being rude Blaine, you seriously need a reality check. **And** to meet Santana Lopez." Blaine's eyes widened a little. He hadn't expected that. He hadn't meant to offend his friend just...darn it, he really wasn't good at this. He didn't have this problem before. Being with Kurt, it used to be so natural but now there was this tension between them and Blaine didn't know why it was there or what to do with it. Perhaps he should keep his distance for a little while. He really didn't want to start fighting again. "This was a simple inquiry about whether or not you had had the chance to benefit from such a piece of advice before rushing to my side to deal with a dangerous bully. You could have gotten hurt you know, so I would completely understand how Wes could have told you just this." Kurt continued, in his usual defensive, slightly sarcastic self. Okay so maybe Blaine didn't deserve to be talked to like Kurt normally talked to Neanderthals who can't understand anything but really? Kurt was rude? That wasn't even him in his true bitchy mode! Argh! He so needed to find a male Mercedes in here!

"I really meant no offence Wes" Kurt said smiling. He knew it was his bitchy, kind of sarcastic smile and not his true happy, blinding smile like the one he had had during 'Teenage Dream' but in his world, you had to merit that latter smile and Wes really didn't.

"And thank you for the advice, but Rachel and I really don't work that way. We help out our friends when in need. And she's very strong and has seen a lot of shit, so she knows perfectly well how to deal. I'm simply making myself available if she needs anything because I care for her."

Then his phone rang. "Huh…well that's a surprise." kurt whispered to himself

"Hey Finn" Kurt answered.

"No I haven't talked to Rachel today." He paused and listened. "No Finn I really don't think you should do that at school. First you could get in trouble and second, it would make everyone know what happened and…"

"What? Finn no! Telling the other Glee members will not help. It'll make things worse. You don't want things in Glee to be all awkward from now on, do you? It'd be like when we were divided between Mr. Shue and Sue. You were the one who said that if we wanted to hear our parents fighting we would have just stayed at home. You don't want to create that atmosphere again."

Kurt rolled his eyes at Finn. He should feel bad for doing that really, but honestly Rachel was three times more emotional than Finn at least and she was being less of a drama queen and less of a 'me, me, me' person. He just really didn't want to hear Finn complain about how alone and miserable he was. Seriously, that guy had no idea what loneliness or rejection really were.

"Finn, why don't you talk to just one person huh? This way you'll have someone to support you without destroying Glee. Ok? Good. Now I need to eat breakfast before class and you need to calm down so you don't punch Puck ok? Good. Yes, I'll talk to you later" Kurt hanged up and sighed.

" Kurt, don't take this the wrong way" David started. "But I don't think you should get between your friends and a bad break-up. Trust me I talk from experience. It never ends well for the person in the middle."

"But I'm not in the middle" Kurt frowned. "I'm not favouring one over the other. I'm just being there if they need to talk. It's what friends do. Besides, that's probably the only time Finn will call me." Why couldn't these boys stop criticising everything he did? Seriously, he had heard more critics since he arrived at the table than Noah Puckerman gave him in three days!

"Still things can get messy" Wes said.

"Well maybe here at Dalton this kind of drama is out of the ordinary, but at McKinley, it's just one more Glee club drama and one more episode of the Finchel series. Last year, Quinn slept with Puck, got pregnant and told her boyfriend Finn, who really liked Rachel, that the baby was his. The truth was found out and Finchel was created. But then Finn wanted to date both Santana and Brit, then changed his mind but Rachel had fallen for Jesse St-James. St-James transferred to our school to prove he wasn't with Rachel to sabotage our Glee Club, but he was. He returned to Vocal Adrenaline and they all egged Rachel who's a vegan and had nightmares of dead baby chicks for weeks after that. Then Finchel was recreated, Santana made Rachel aware of a lie Finn told, she got insecure, angry and stopped thinking and kissed Puck hence the current break up. You want me to go through the other people of the club too?"

Blaine and David looked at him with widened eyes. Wes' reaction was harder to interpret. Kurt was pretty sure he disagreed with Kurt for even talking about it at all.

"Wow…that's like a mini-version of the soap my girlfriend likes to watch" David said.

Kurt shrugged. "It's normal. Everyone is hormonal and hyper-emotive and dramatic or bitchy and cruel. It's just regular high school."

"Not for Dalton" Wes said. 'Of course not' Kurt thought 'Nothing is like your perfect Dalton Wes! Argh I swear that boy. Calm down Kurt. You have to be nice to him, he's Blaine's friend. But seriously, doesn't he get that life outside these walls has nothing to do with how Dalton is?' Kurt thought.

"Yeah well we don't have girls here. Make this a mixed school and I guarantee there will be drama!" Kurt said

"That's true. Things were similar to that at my old school. Although we never did have a teenage pregnancy"

"Trust me when I say you didn't miss much. Pregnancy hormones are exactly as all guys fear." Kurt said.

Then, the discussion fell flat and the subject was changed. Kurt listen to the three boys talk but didn't say anything. None of them tried to include Kurt or asked for his opinion, which coming from Blaine was hurtful. He was sitting beside the older boy and yet he was feeling less close to him than when he had been at McKinley. Kurt mentally sighed again. It didn't seem like things were looking up after all.

The day went by slowly. Kurt sent messages with song lyrics, or simply the word 'courage' to Rachel and she did the same for him. He felt closer to her than ever, even though they were miles apart. He hadn't seen Blaine for the rest of the day but sadly, that hadn't surprised him. He had texted Blaine hoping to gain back a little of the relationship they seemed to be losing since Kurt had started at Dalton, but the other boy had answered that he was sorry, but didn't have the time to talk. And the other boy had been surprised last night that Kurt doubted they were friends at all.

Rachel's day had been hard. She tried not to look at Finn but her eyes didn't seem to want to listen to her brain. Finn mostly looked angry. She knew she had hurt him but witnessing it was much harder. Noah wouldn't look at her either. He was probably doing everything he could not to lose Finn again, which meant that Rachel had probably just lost a friend too. Noah had his bad sides but at times where she was down, he had been there. He had also defended her before. If something bad happened to her, she knew she could always count on him. When Jesse had egged her, he had been the first one to want to defend her. That had meant something to Rachel. And now she had probably destroyed that too. Kurt kept sending her nice messages. It made her feel a little lighter.

However, after three days of this, Rachel couldn't take it anymore. Glee club was that afternoon and she did not know how she could handle it. She hoped that Mr. Shue would not make her sing something with Finn or Noah. So remembering what Kurt had told her, she tried her luck and went to speak to Brittany. Like it was usual now, she was standing close to Artie.

"Hey Artie, Brittany." She said with her now usual fake smile. "Artie do you mind if I borrow your girlfriend for a minute or two, I need to talk to her."

"Uhm sure Rachel" Artie said sending a weird look to Rachel. The girl usually never talked to Brittany.

"Thanks. Uhm Brittany, could you help me with something?" Brittany looked at Rachel. San didn't like Rachel and sometimes the girl talked too much, but Artie seemed to want her to go with Rachel, so she did. Once in an empty classroom, Rachel said "Your babygaydoll told me that if I couldn't handle things, he trusted you to help me and support me a little since he can't be there for me personally."

"You saw my babygaydoll?" Brit asked. She missed him. Kurt was always nice to her and he had always defended her against people who called her stupid. He wanted her to help Rachel because he wasn't there? She could do that for him.

"Ok. How can I help?" Rachel burst in tears and sat down on a chair. She then told Brittany what had happened with Finn and Puck and how she was scared of Glee.

"Did you have sex with him?" Brit asked

"No. But then again, he's the one who stopped it you know. Maybe I would have"

"Did you have sex with Finn?"

"No, I wasn't ready"

"Then you wouldn't have been ready with Puck. Artie said the first time is something special and you do it with someone you love. You don't love Puck so you wouldn't have done it"

"Thanks Brittany. It really means a lot that you believe I wouldn't have"

"Yeah, if I haven't done anything with a boy since I started dating Artie, you wouldn't have either. You know I didn't use to be with just one boy. And San said that I couldn't do it, that I couldn't be only with Artie but Artie smells nice and other boys smell gross and they're heavy while Artie is light, so I don't feel like I should kiss other boys. I don't really understand why San said I would"

"Well I'm really happy to hear this Brittany. It means you found a boy made for you. The other boys… they didn't respect you enough, they didn't deserve to be with you."

"Is that why you kissed Puck? Because Finn didn't respect you enough?"

"Well…I did think he should have at least told me the truth when I told him I had lied about having sex with Jesse"

"I would have had sex with Jesse. I think."

Rachel laughed. "Yeah well, he was pretty cute wasn't he?" Brit nodded. "But I think deep down, I feared you guys were right and he was using me. And he was. If I had given him my virginity only to have it all been a lie, it would have completely destroyed my first time"

"I did that to Artie. I made it seem not special but it's okay now because I really love him so he says that it was special after all. He just didn't think it was because San told him I didn't love him and she told me I didn't love him and sometimes I'm confused about things and San explains them to me but she said I didn't love him and it hurt when he said I had hurt him and I missed him even when I was with San and my babygaydoll told me that it's because I loved Artie and where love was concerned I should ask him to explain things to me and not San because she's more confused than me about love and I think he's right. I didn't read the novel for English class but Artie explained it to me and it's a love book. The girl says how she loves the boy and it's how I feel about Artie…but with less difficult words."

Rachel nodded. Kurt was right; Brittany was a sweetheart.

"I'll sing with Finn if you don't want to sing with him"

"Thanks Brittany. That means a lot. I was a little afraid you would be angry at me for what I did to Finn?"

"Why? you didn't have Puck's baby like Quinn and I wasn't angry at Quinn for that. I'm stupid too sometimes. It happens"

"Thanks"

"Do you want me to tell Artie what happened? He's really good at making me not sad"

"I…I think I'm not…" Then she thought about it. Secrets between girlfriend and boyfriend were never a good thing. "If you make him promise not to tell anyone and if you don't tell Santana about it, then yes, please tell Artie"

Brit nodded. Rachel was very sad and very quiet. That was not like the Rachel she knew and she didn't like when the people in Glee were sad. She'll try to make San not say mean things to Rachel today. She didn't like seeing Rachel cry.

The rest of Rachel's day had gone much better. Talking to Brittany had helped. It was nice to know that Kurt and Brit hadn't condemned Rachel for what she had done. They both understood that people can make mistakes. She also had the confirmation that Kurt had been right about Santana. It's evident that the girl had tried to drive a wedge between Artie and Brittany, whether out of jealousy of not having something like they did or out of fear of loosing Brittany to someone else. In Rachel's opinion, the cheerleader should have just made up her mind. She was pretty sure that if Santana had decided to date Brittany, the latter would have been very happy to do so. But now she had Artie. Soon though Glee arrived and it was with a nervous stomach that Rachel Berry entered the choir room.

/

An: HI! Hope you liked this. For those who think Brittany is OOC, let me tell you this: She's not easy to write! I did my best! Comments are loved!


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: if you're reading chapter 8, then you've read the previous chapters and already know! you're welcome to go read back about how I don't own anything, but every single person would know that even if I hadn't ever put any disclaimer. it's like repeating the obvious over and over again...**

**Chapter 8 **

Kurt was seated at his desk, in his bedroom, trying to resolve a mathematic problem. It wasn't that hard. The teacher, realising that coming from a public school meant that Kurt was not as advanced as the other students in the group, had offered remedial periods during lunch and sometimes late afternoon. The science teacher did the same. They covered the material that Kurt had missed and also resolved one problem of the homework with him so he could know what to do on his own. They were also quite happy to see Kurt's dedication to his studies. Indeed, Kurt had showed up at every remedial lesson this week, both at noon and in the afternoon. Of course Kurt didn't tell them it had little to do with academic motivation and more to do with not wanting to be all alone in a room filled with people. When he was in remedial classes, he didn't feel as alone because he was too occupied with trying to learn properly. Things with Blaine were the same old, same old. Wait no…the old Blaine was the one who texted him many times per day and enjoyed spending time and talking with Kurt. He supposed same new, same new was more accurate then. Blaine and Kurt had barely seen and talked to each other. He saw Blaine during Warblers practice, but he didn't have any time to talk to him. Everything was schedule precisely in those meetings and it was truly starting to drive Kurt insane. But most of all, it was destroying any joy he could have had in singing. Everything was so technical. There were no emotions, no catharsis involved with singing with the Warblers. During meetings, Kurt didn't say a word. When suggestions were demanded, he wasn't frantically raising his hand, eager to share his ideas like he had been with New Directions. Wes had said that Pavarotti was his voice. He had been right; his voice was silenced and in a pretty little cage. Pavarotti rarely sang. Kurt supposed he was still moulting. Or he was simply feeling his current owner's emotions and emulating him. Kurt had heard pets were very perspicacious.

"You know Pavarotti, sometimes I almost wonder if I should have gone along with Puck's idea of the Glee boys protecting me and stayed there. This way I could argue with Rachel and roll my eyes at her outfits. I could gossip with Mercedes. I could watch Brittany being in a real relationship for the first time ever. I could have tried not to throw up at Sam and Quinn's googly eyes. " The bird looked at him, but didn't say anything. "Poor you, you must be sick of being in that cage." Kurt thought for a second. He had a room all to himself and no one ever visited. It wouldn't do any harm to let the poor bird out so he could fly a little.

"There you go Pavarotti. How about you move those wings a little" Pavarotti spread his wing open and move them but he didn't fly. " Come on you can fly. You're safe here" Kurt frowned. Pavarotti walked around the desk but didn't fly. Maybe it was because of the moulting.

Kurt took his phone and sent a text to Blaine. _**Does moulting keep birds from flying?**_

_Uhm. I don't think so. If you're asking if Pavarotti is able to fly though, then the answer is no. His wings feathers are cut to keep him from flying. So don't worry about it! You don't risk losing him when you're giving him food and water :)_

Kurt was yet again stuck in a state of almost outraged shocked. That was just like when Blaine had told him not to be rude! How cruel. How could he even think that Kurt didn't want his poor bird to fly? That was it! He already thought this tradition was a little stupid but now he thought it was just plain cruel.

"Don't worry little guy." Kurt told his bird "I'm sure feathers have to be trimmed more than once and I won't let them cut yours anymore. You'll fly again in no time, even if I have to get Rachel to help sneak you out of here. She's a vegan you know. She knows a lot of organisations created to help captive or mistreated animals. I'm sure she could take care of you for me."

Speaking about Rachel, Kurt's phone rang with the music of 'Don't Rain on my Parade'. Kurt's song was 'Defying Gravity' on Rachel's phone.

"Hi Rachel"

"K..Kurt…" Rachel sobbed.

Immediately, Kurt's back straighten out. "Rachel what's wrong?"

"Finn….he…*sobs* Santana…"

Kurt had problems understanding what his friend was saying between her sobs but he did understand who it involved. "Ok Rachel where are you?"

"The auditorium"

"Ok. Put on some music and wait for me there. I'm coming"

"the…the..Warblers… don't want you…in trouble"

"We don't have practice so they can't say anything about it and Rachel? Even if I had practice you would have been my first choice, no matter what the consequences, clear?"

"Cl..Clear."

"Ok. I'll be there soon, love"

Quickly, Kurt took his coat and keys and dialled another friend's number.

"Artie?" Kurt asked "Oh Brittany. Is Artie there? He's looking for Rachel? You too? Brit what happened? Rachel just called me sobbing. I could only hear that it involved Finn and Santana. I'm coming down to Lima to see her. Can you tell me what happened please?"

"It was San." Brit answered. "Finn talked to her about Rachel kissing Puck and she told everyone else" Kurt headslapped himself. Finn really? Of all the freaking people he had chosen to confide in, he had chosen Santana? After what she did to Rachel and him in the first place right before Sectionals? What the hell was that boy thinking? No wait. That was the problem: he hadn't thought!

"And then people started to say mean things to Rachel and I told Quinn that she had a baby with Puck when she dated Finn and then she stopped raging on Rachel, but Santana didn't. She kept saying how horrible she was and how poor Finn was so unlucky for having dated her and how much better he was without her and Rachel just kept looking at Finn, being weirdly silent. Artie said Rachel was waiting for Finn to say something but he didn't, so she ran out crying. I told San she was mean and Rachel was nice and did something stupid like I do sometimes and that it's not fair that San says it's okay when I make a mistake and for Rachel it's not okay and I left and Artie followed. I don't want Rachel to cry Kurt"

"Then go to the auditorium and take her on your arms and tell her some of those stories you told me at Cheerleading competitions, ok?"

"Okay, Babygaydoll. I miss you."

"I miss you too Brit. I'll see you in an hour"

"Ok"

Kurt hanged up feeling much better than before now that he knew Rachel had someone taking her side at McKinley. Once again, he felt extremely grateful for meeting Brittany. Most people thought that she was stupid and she wasn't academically good at all, she probably had a learning disability, but that didn't make her dumb. He couldn't count the number of times when she had said just the right thing to make him feel better. She was also quite empathic, which was surprising considering who her best friend was. He supposed Brit must have developed hyper-empathy to fill the void created by Santana Lopez's complete lack of it.

"Rachel, are you there?" Brit said entering the auditorium.

"Bri..Brittany?" Rachel said coming out of her hiding place.

"Hey. Artie and I were looking for you. I told Santana to stop being mean, you know. You shouldn't listen to her. I tune her out when she gets bitchy 'cause then she says she doesn't need me and I'm just there 'cause Puck is in juvie and that hurts in my heart."

Rachel smiled at her friend "Yeah, I really should learn not to listen to her. But actually Santana wasn't the worst. I expect this from her. It's what I'm used to. And I know I tend to annoy Quinn, but really? Calling me a 'slut-wannabe' and saying it wasn't enough with the 'run joey run' video now I had to do worst to Finn. I mean I get that she's protective of him, but let's not forget that the reason she's so protective is because she cheated on him with is best friend and told Finn it was his baby! Thanks for pointing that out to her Brit"

Brittany nodded, sitting herself next to Rachel. "I wish Drizzle was still here. Quinn was nicer when Drizzle was in her."

"I think it's the cheerleader captain thing. No offence"

"It's okay. When Coach keeps screaming at you, sometimes you scream on someone else"

"You know Brittany, you're very surprising. You know just the things to say"

"My babygaydoll says that all the time. He told me to tell you some of my stories he liked at Cheerleading competitions."

Rachel smiled "I'd really like to hear them." Brit put her arms around Rachel's shoulder, letting the other girl put her head on the cheerleader's shoulder. Soon enough, Artie had finished checking the girls' bathrooms and had joined them. It was nice having supportive friends.

Kurt arrived pretty quickly. By the time he did, Artie and Brittany had cheered Rachel up and were actually singing all together. And Lord did Kurt miss that. This….this was singing. It was filled with emotions and energy and different unique styles. They weren't diluting their own singing style to fit in and yet they fit so well together while being so different from each others. He really missed this dynamic. He joined them in singing and dancing, and choosing songs. The latter was something he had not done in a while. The Warblers practiced often and the rest of the time, Kurt was trying to catch up on his studies. But really, he hadn't felt like singing since the solo and being here, with his friends, singing exactly the way he wanted too and being applauded for it instead of being looked at weird….this was the life.

"So Kurt" Artie finally said "how are things doing at Dalton?"

"Honestly? Not so well." Kurt replied.

"How come?" Artie asked. He would have thought Kurt would have been having a great time. Especially since Blaine was at that school.

"Uhm where to start? Blaine hasn't been acting like he used to. I barely saw him and I really miss him and the close friendship we had. Then there are the Warblers. Their meetings are stricter and more organized than multinationals businesses' meetings! Singing with you guys today was the most fun I had since going to Dalton."

"I thought boarding schools were like prison during school year" Brittany said. "I thought you could only get out during the summer. But you're here. So why don't you come sing with us instead of them?"

Kurt looked at her with an incredulous face. Artie looked at her with a huge smile. His girlfriend was awesome. People always underestimated her. "Brit, you are a genius!" Kurt exclaimed. "Don't let anyone else tell you any different" he said kissing her cheek

"Ok babygaydoll" Brit said smiling brightly.

Once again Rachel had to keep herself from laughing at the nickname. Artie looked at his girl with questioning eyes. "Babygaydoll?" he asked.

"Long story" Kurt answered, soon followed by Brit's "what happens at cheer competition stays there." "Oooooookkkkkkaaaayyy" Artie said.

Kurt laughed. "That's funny. That was Rachel's exact reaction"

The friends continued talking and laughing but soon it was time for them to go home. Their parents would worry otherwise. Kurt gave an extra long hug to Rachel, telling her to hang in there.

"You're strong Rachel. Don't let this bring you down. Everybody overreacted today. It'll pass. And if it doesn't, then it's their loss because they're being a bunch of hypocrites. No one gave Quinn that kind of crap last year so there's no reason to give you any over kissing Puck. I'm pretty sure they understand that now."

Rachel nodded. Then she kept him from leaving just yet. "Kurt. I…I want to go talk to Finn. What happened today hurt me and I think I need to deal with it now. Do you…do you think it's the worst idea I ever had?" she asked worried.

Kurt thought for a minute. "No. If you feel ready and if you feel you need to, then I think that's what you need to do. Maybe in the light of what happened today Finn will be more receptive to hearing you out. Hopefully Brit's speech has had an impact on him."

"Yeah hopefully. That's what I'll do. I'll go talk to Finn. Thanks Kurt. You're my best friend."

"Aw hun. Come here." He said hugging her once again. Then they said their goodbyes and went on their way.

/

Rachel took a deep breath. 'You can do this Rachel.' She told herself. 'No you have to do this. You have to know where you stand' Gathering her courage, she rang the bell of the Hudson's home.

She waited patiently until finally, after what seemed like an eternity, someone answered the door: Finn.

"What are you doing here" her ex-boyfriend said.

"In light of what has happened today I felt that you and I needed to have a discussion about our situation" She said, fighting hard to maintain her cool. "May I enter?"

"Uhm…no I'd really rather not" Finn said, awkwardly looking down towards the right.

Rachel sighed. "Alright. Look, what happened today has hurt me. On more than one level."

"You hurt me too Rachel!" Finn said coldly.

"Yes, I'm well aware of what I have done and that I must live with it. Just like I'm aware that one of the things that hurt you about my kissing Puck was that I had done it with the intent of hurting you. You said you never thought I was mean. Now I never thought you would be consciously mean, but I need to be sure. Did you tell Santana about what happened to hurt me?" Rachel asked. When the accusations had been floating her way at Glee club and Finn hadn't even looked at her, she couldn't help but wonder if the others turning against her was what he wanted.

"No! I just…needed someone to talk to"

"And you chose Santana?" Rachel exclaimed.

"Why not? He answered defensive.

"Oh I don't know Finn, how about she's the one who told me about you two in the first place! And right before Sectionals too. It could have thrown us off our game. It almost did! And that's only one example of her selfishness. She tried to break-up Artie and Brittany once too. Or how about the fact that she's always mean to me? Shouldn't that have told you that she wasn't the person to talk to? There were Sam, Artie, and Mike that you could have turned to. Do you know how much it hurt me that you turned to her of all people?"

"Well I'm sorry Rachel, that I didn't think about you. God you always do this. Everything is always about you!" Finn said. Rachel's eyes filled with tears. That comment had hurt. She knew she was self-absorbed but she did try to be better.

"Alright. I admit that I tend to think about myself first, but it's not like that has never happened to you. Look, I didn't come here to fight."

"then why did you come here?" Finn interrupted her.

"Because I felt we needed to talk. We haven't talked since the break-up and it feels like there is some unfinished business between us."

"There isn't. Rachel, you cheated on me. Just like Quinn did. I can't forgive that, not now and when I do, how I can I ever trust you again?"

"You can trust me Finn" Rachel said emotionally. "It was a stupid one-time mistake, the biggest mistake I've ever made and I'm so sorry and it will never happen again Finn. You can believe me. Nothing like that will ever happen again."

Finn shook his head "I'm sorry Rachel but I can't accept your word for it. This…this is the one single thing I don't think I could ever get over. I do miss you and seeing you at school is hard but Rachel most of all, when I see you, all I feel is hurt, and anger. I can't be with you anymore"

"Well obviously not right now" She started, a little desperate. "but with time…"

"No Rachel!" Finn screamed at her. "It's over okay! What we had, you killed it off. It's over. You're not my girlfriend anymore and I don't want you to ever be again. Time may make me forgive you as a friend like with Quinn, but nothing more. I think I deserve better than that."

"Oh you mean like Quinn deserved better than a boyfriend who was more interested in me than in her? Let's not forget what pushed Quinn to cheat in the first place Finn!" Rachel screamed, tears running down her cheeks. She was hurt and she was angry and desperate and so, so terribly sad. All these emotions were rushing through her body and she couldn't make sense of them.

"Oh so nice of you to bring that back up!" Finn said sarcastically. "You know I really thought you were different than this."

"Well I'm sorry I'm such a disappointment." Rachel said vividly.

"Yeah me too." Finn said. "I think you should leave." he added

"Hey Hudson" a girl's voice said, opening the door behind Finn. "You coming or what? Oh hi man hands. You're make-up's running. I'd fix that if I were you." Santana said. As far as insult went, that was actually very tame from Santana Lopez. Her tone had lost most of her viciousness since Glee club. Rachel supposed that Brittany's speech must have had some impact on her.

"Yeah okay, I'm coming Santana." Finn said. Santana was about to say something but then she looked at Rachel and thought it would be better if she just went back inside. Brittany had been really angry at her, still was, and no matter how much she disliked Rachel Berry, the other girl wasn't worth loosing Brit. Besides, she made her suffer enough already. Time to find someone else to put down in their places.

"Look Rachel, I've got a friend over so I gotta go"

"A friend?" Rachel asked, choking on the words as her heart was being torn apart.

"Yes a friend. And even if she was something else, it really wouldn't be any of your business." Finn said, turning around and walking back in the house.

"I too I'm sorry that you're a disappointment, Finn" Rachel said to the Hudson's door. She turned around and was able to contain her sobs until she was in her car. She didn't know how long she stayed there, but it must have been a while. Once she stopped crying, she texted Kurt.

_Tell me I'll find love again, after Finn. _

The answer came almost immediately._** Oh hun, once you're out of this small minded town, there'll be so many boys who'll see you shining amongst all the other girls and won't be too intimidated by your greatness to approach you that you'll need me to chase them off with my dad's shotgun!**_

Rachel laughed. Kurt knew how to make her feel better. She may still be heart-broken, but at least she knew she had a best-friend out there, looking out for her. If no boys found any interest in her for a while than it was okay. She'll just eat tofu ice cream with Kurt watching chick-flicks and live love vicariously through songs, movies and Kurt, if he started dating someone. That Blaine boy seemed to have caught Kurt's eyes but he had been much different since Kurt entered Dalton. He needed to have his head pulled out of his ass! What Rachel Berry needed, besides watching Titanic and consoling herself with the fact that at least the guy she loved was still alive, was a plan. She'd let Kurt handle this for a little while and give Blaine a chance to wake up on his own, but she'll be thinking of a plan just in case that boy was very dense. Maybe she could ask Artie and Brittany for suggestions…..

/

An: Hoped you liked it! Writing this chapter took me quite a while, but I did it! I finally finished it! I was kind of really, really not inspired today but then I was able to poke my muse with a stick enough that she got fed up and accepted to complete this chapter! so yeah hoped you enjoyed. Next chapter, there should be some development in the Kurt/Warblers thing!


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: Don't own Glee...why? well for one my first name isn't Ryan.**

**Special thanks: First of all HUGE THANKS TO ALL MY REVIEWERS! Also thanks to Elemaria91 for asking about Puck because I had wanted to put him in the story and I had forgotten and now thanks to that kind reviewer my muse had lots of fun writing Puck!**

**Chapter 9**

Two weeks had passed by since Kurt had last rushed to Rachel's side. When he had heard what Finn had told Rachel, he had winced at the emotional pain his friend was probably in. Finn had been almost cruelly direct. She was upset obviously but most of all…she was disappointed. She hadn't been able to reconnect with Finn on any level and his abrupt manners were not what she was used to from him. Finn had said he had expected better from Rachel; the girl was starting to feel the same way about him. He still wasn't talking to her and spent quite a bit of time with Santana. That obviously upset Rachel especially since he wasn't subtle about it at all. She knew she had hurt him but she thought that he was being a tiny bit mean. Kurt said that there was no tiny bit about it. He was pretty sure Finn was doing exactly what he had reproached Rachel of doing: trying to get back at her and hurt her. Kurt told her to stick her tongue out at him. He said it was very therapeutic. He had done so behind Wes' back a couple of times now. He normally wouldn't lower himself to doing something so childish but the settings of Dalton were urging him to act out in some way. He couldn't express himself with his clothes, or songs, so he had to find another way. Acting a little childish was one of them. Another one was playing video games with some of the other boys. He had started to talk to non-Warblers and had found two guys who were funny, extraverted, and sort of childish at times but whom accepted Kurt's diva personality: Joshua and Marcus. Instead of freaking out on him when he was being flamboyant and a total fangirl, they just laughed and teased him about being cute. Then, they laughed some more at Kurt's pout. They listened to Kurt when he was ranting about fashion even though neither of them understood anything he was saying and always looked at him like he was speaking Cantonese. They had even accepted to go shopping with Kurt next weekend at the condition that Kurt helped them chose the perfect Christmas presents for their girlfriends. Kurt was terribly excited about it. He had asked them a ton of questions about their girlfriends and their taste. The boys hadn't known all the answers and hadn't wanted to ask their girlfriends in case they were too obvious, but Kurt had pushed them until they had done it. As a result, the respective girlfriend was feeling like Joshua/Marcus and her were connecting on a deeper level than before and was gushing about how the other girls were jealous that she had a boyfriend who cared so much about her tastes and was so interested in her. They had declared Kurt their own personal couple councillor. Kurt had simply rolled his eyes at his friends and walked away muttering about strength boys.

So things were really looking up for Kurt. Pavarotti had started singing again and had started to spread his wings in his cage, asking to be left out. He had apparently really liked the freedom Kurt had given him previously and wanted more. Warblers practice was still the same though, but since he went back to Lima sometimes to sing with some of his old friends like Brit had suggested, he hadn't been feeling so depressed about it and was now singing to Pavarotti often, when they were in his room. Going back to Lima to sing with his old glee club friends had opened his eyes and had made him reached the decision that needed to be taken. So three days ago, seeing as Pavarotti couldn't fly away, Kurt had decided to make a statement and let his pet free from his cage and bring it with him whenever Kurt wasn't in class. He brought him to breakfast, lunch and dinner and in his pause. At first, no one seemed to notice but soon enough a Warbler had and Blaine had been sent to have a talk with him.

"Hey Kurt!" Blaine said with a smile.

"Blaine." Kurt answered keeping his face cool, hiding his excitement and happiness and seeing his friend. He had talked to Quinn recently and she had suggested he pulled back from Blaine to spare his own feelings and as a tactic to try and wake the other boy up.

"how may I help you?" Kurt said, detachedly.

"Well uhm…" Blaine looked at his feet. Darn it! Why did he let David and Wes talk him into this?

Kurt sighed, "Let me guess Blaine. A Warbler saw the cute little yellow bird that's on my shoulder and decided to tell the council, who decided to take offence in it. Am I close?"

"Well yeah…it's just.."

"Blaine is it true that Pavarotti is unable to fly?"

"Yes but…"

"So then there's no way I'll lose him, is there? He can run away but he's not that fast and besides, he never leaves my side. I've tried it with Josh and Marc. Pavarotti didn't even go in their directions. He stayed close to me. Although he does let other pet him. He's a glutton for affection and just loves showing off" Kurt said in affectionate tone. He really loved his little bird now.

"Yes but Kurt, letting your bird free like this, it's just not done"

"And because no one has done it, it means no one should?" Kurt asked abruptly. "So you're saying that the first country who allowed women to vote or gays to wed shouldn't have because it just wasn't done and they shouldn't have tried anything new? Gucci Blaine! Are you even listening to yourself!" Kurt had planned on keeping his cool, but really Blaine just frustrated him so much these days! He never spent any time with Kurt and when he did, it was to criticize him! In the name of the Warblers of course! It was like Blaine had no voice for himself; he was only repeating what other told him to say, like some sort of robot. Well, Kurt was sick of it!

Blaine looked at his friend in shocked. "Where's that boy who texted me several times a day? The boy who made me laugh and squeal like a fangirl when he sang? The one I could discuss my favourite Vogue cover with and gush over anything? Where's the boy who shined so bright and could be flamboyant but who mostly was just his unique self? " Blaine looked down to the floor. It was true that he hadn't really acted like he used to with Kurt but that was because Kurt and he met only outside of Dalton. At Dalton, he was expected to behave in a certain manner.

"Kurt we have rules here…"

Kurt interrupted him immediately. "And one of them is that you can't express yourself overtly? That you can be excited or show any over the top emotions? That you have to be some sort of robotic parrot spouting rules! Because Joshua and Marcus aren't like that. They have fun, they laugh, they act stupid….but most of all, they let me act like me. Where is the guy who seemed to get me so well?" Kurt asked, his tone filled with pain. "I really miss him and his friendship. I miss how we had very similar taste and how we could speak about anything together. No one else has ever made me feel this way. But since I came here, I've felt like that boy I liked so much is gone and I don't know who took his place and why. Because I liked that boy exactly like he was before. And when I look at you, all I can think of is how much I miss him. So I don't think you and I should keep any contact with each other anymore Blaine. It's too hurtful. And besides, if you're not what I need when you're this Blaine, then I'm not what you need either. Go back to your Warblers' friends Blaine and be their boy. Me? I'm going to be like Pavarotti is. Tell the council I'll deal with my bird's issue with them tonight at the meeting would you?"

"Of course" Blaine said softly. He could feel tears threatened to spill over his eyes, onto his cheek. He felt like Kurt had ripped his heart out and played polo with it. Gosh this was such a mess. Why couldn't Kurt just understand? Joshua and Marcus weren't part of any cohesive group. They didn't need to take others into account in order to make things in that group function. The Warblers needed to fit in with each other; they couldn't afford to have people stand out of the crowd too much. They needed to sing as one unit. That was just how things were. He knew it was hard for Kurt to adapt to this, but he had never thought he would lose his friend over this. No, he hadn't lost Kurt. Kurt was just having difficulty adapting to a new situation. He'd talk to the other Warblers and ask them to try and include Kurt more in their activities and conversation. If Kurt could find friends other than Blaine in the Warblers, then he'd have more than one example of why things were like they were and he'd be more accepting of them. Blaine had adapted to them. But what Blaine didn't think about, was that at his old school, he had done everything to fade in the background and be forgotten by the bullies while Kurt had been out there in their faces with his differences. That made a whole world of difference in the adaptation to a group like the Warblers. But Blaine wanted to stay positive and therefore, didn't think about that. He kept hoping things would settle down. He was in for a surprise at that afternoon Warbler's meeting.

"Council if I may" Kurt said, still standing up, back to the door. "I'd like to say a word before the meeting starts" Kurt had to stop himself from laughing aloud from Wes constipated expression. You could see that he wanted to say no but Blaine had been immediately silently begging him to give Kurt a chance. Blaine was going to be disappointed, Kurt knew, but he was really doing what was best for himself. If Blaine couldn't accept it then Kurt would really make good on his word, and take his distance from him. It will hurt Kurt a lot but he was already missing Blaine so much that really, in the long run, it would be for the best. He silently hoped however that this would make Blaine wake up.

"First I'd like to say that I'm very grateful for the opportunity the Warblers have offered me. I'm thankful for you guys accepting me so close to Sectionals and even giving me the opportunity to audition for a solo so soon" 'and made me question everything I thought about my singing abilities but don't go there Kurt' he thought " However, as grateful as I am, I have come to realise that unfortunately the Warblers weren't a right fit for me and vice versa. I love singing more than anything else but I don't feel my voice is bringing anything to this group and I found that singing with some of my old friends once a week was doing more for me than singing with you guys. This is not a criticism" Kurt added to be politically correct. 'Although I so want to criticise how you're working and try to make you wake up and stop being identical parrots! But no Kurt, the Warblers are popular and you don't want to piss them off. Having a no tolerance bullying policy didn't mean they couldn't find ways to express their anger.' Kurt thought.

"Therefore I'm sad to say that I must resign from the Warblers." Kurt said in a tone that was factual and not sad at all. "As for Pavarotti, I have asked the faculty if bringing him with me wherever I go on my shoulder caused any trouble or disrespected any school rules and was told that no, it wasn't. Therefore, I know that as good rule-obeying students none of you will have a problem with me doing just that. My math teacher even said that Pavarotti seemed to cheer my fellow classmates up when he was softly singing or simply by giving them a pet they can touch and spoil. He's become quite the school mascot I believe. And now, since I've already taken much of your precious time, I will let you guys get back to your practice." Kurt said before turning on his heels, and walking out of the room, with his head up high.

He walked down the hall confidently, feeling more relief and elation than he had felt in over a month. Boy, it was good being himself again. That cage had really been driving him nuts.

"Kurt! Kurt wait!" Blaine screamed after him, running.

'Oh boy' Kurt thought 'Another Blaine sermon. Can't he just let me be happy for even a little while'

"Kurt what are you doing?"

"I'm currently walking down a hallway Blaine" Kurt answered matter-of-factly.

"It's not what I meant and you know it. Kurt, you can't just quit the Warblers like that!"

Kurt rolled his eyes. Of course, they probably had a protocol for quitting too. "Look, I didn't know there were some rules about how exactly to quit. If I'm supposed to sign some papers or whatever, just bring them to me and I'll do what's needed"

"No it's not what I meant. Kurt, the Warblers won't offer you another chance. If you quit, then it's over for good"

"Yes, and?" Kurt asked coolly.

"Kurt…" Blaine said, looking hurt.

"What? Look I'm sorry that they're probably going to be giving you shit over what I did. Sincerely I am. But they should have never given you trouble for anything I did anyway. I'm not your responsibility; you can't control me. If you tried, I would hate you. And I really don't want to hate you, Blaine. Can't you see that me leaving the Warblers is the best thing for me? I don't fit in that group…"

"But Kurt give it a chance. With time…"

"With time I'll hate what I was forced to become! I don't want to fit in that group Blaine. The Warblers make you happy and that's great Blaine, it really is. But me? They make me miserable. I've been so unhappy since joining Dalton, I couldn't sing at all anymore. But then Brit suggested I simply went back to Lima once in a while to sing with them and I had more fun doing just that than I've ever had with the Warblers. And that's not going to change. Because I'm not going to change! I'm fine the way I am! But they don't accept me this way and I'm not going to bend backwards for them! I didn't for the bullies so I don't see why I should do it now."

"Kurt…."

"Blaine I swear to Gucci, if you say that in time I will fit in, I will slap you!" Kurt said vehemently. "And I don't want to have to do that"

"I just…" Blaine looked at him like Kurt had just killed his puppy. Kurt felt himself waver at the look but he couldn't let himself go weak. He knew how he felt about Blaine. He knew if the other boy begged enough with his charming puppy dog eyes, he would crack and accept to go back with the Warblers and he'll be miserable for nothing. Because in the end, that wouldn't make Blaine go back to being his close friend. "Please Kurt. Reconsider. We'll make efforts to include you more, I swear. I know you haven't really made friends in the Warblers yet but…"

"Blaine, first of all, you can't force them to accept me. I know what you've been doing. You've been pulling favours with them ever since I arrived. You shouldn't have to do that. They should want to spend time with me on their own volition not because you asked them to. And secondly...I don't even feel like I have you as a friend in the Warblers. When you're alone with me, sure, you're my friend. You're nice to me and smile at me and mostly accept me like I am, but as soon as a Warbler is there, I disappear. You keep telling me that I need to adapt, that I need to change in order to fit in at Dalton. But in the last two weeks, I've tried being myself and do you know what happened? I found Joshua and Marcus. I've also started talking to other people. People who don't ask me to fit in, people who actually think that having Pavarotti with me is cool and mostly people who don't have a rulebook up their butts. I've been happier since the last two weeks. Can't you be happy about that?"

"Of course I'm happy you're happy, Kurt. That's all I want for you; to be happy at Dalton." Blaine said softly. He was glad that Kurt was happier. He just wished Kurt didn't feel like he had to leave the Warblers to be happy.

"Well I am. Completely now that I quit the Warblers. Can't you just accept that I'm different than you and leave it at that?"

"I just….I don't understand why you'd leave the Warblers."

"I guess you and I have fewer things in common than I previously thought then."

"I wish I could understand" Blaine said sadly. He really wanted to. He felt like he was loosing Kurt and that was ripping at his heart.

"Me too. More than anything. It's not that complicated you know. I want to be myself and feel I can't be in the Warblers."

" You can! Be yourself and don't try so hard."

"Try so hard?" Kurt said offended "Try so hard to do what? Disappear in the wall, hoping the meeting will end soon? Gucci Blaine! I never tried too hard. I thought you knew that! That you were just parroting what Wes had told you to say but I was wrong wasn't I? You just don't get who I really am. Or rather you conveniently forgot! Let me give you a reminder: the dinner we had with Mercedes! Think a little bit about that! When you've figured something out, come and see me. Until then, I suppose you'll just continue what you've been doing, being too busy to text me and speaking only to the other Warblers and not me!" Kurt exclaimed. He was officially in a bad mood again! The nerve! Argh. Seriously he did not understand what was wrong with Blaine. Why couldn't his friend stop being a member of the Warblers and just be Blaine?

Blaine stayed in the middle of the corridor for a while. Then David came and told him he needed to get back to practice but for the first time since he joined the Warblers, he wished he didn't have to go to practice. All he wanted was go up to his room and listen to Katy Perry and try to make his heart stop hurting. But most of all, he wanted Kurt back.

/

Noah Puckerman felt really bad about kissing his best-friend girl…again. But most of all, he felt bad for Rachel. When he had heard that Finn had broken-up with the girl over their kiss, he felt his heart constrict. That was his fault. F**k. He'd screwed someone over yet again. He was trying to be less of a jerk now but apparently it wasn't working. Well…at least he hadn't had sex with her. He never would have done that. He made that mistake once and wasn't about to do it again. Besides, he knew how it would have hurt Rachel to lose her virginity to someone she wasn't in love with. So he had pushed her away. He couldn't look at her for over a week after the break-up. He felt too bad about the whole thing. She must hate him so much. But then one day, he found her crying in the auditorium and he couldn't stop himself; he had to comfort her. Crying girls were just something he really disliked. It was one of the reasons he preferred to go for heartless bitches like Santana. Talking about Santana, apparently, she was the one who had caused these tears running down Rachel's face. She had been going after Rachel a lot recently. And now apparently Finn had joined her. Man, he didn't want to lose his friend or go back to Juvie but he really, really wanted to punch Finn for hurting Rachel like that. She had made a mistake, big deal! Quinn had done worse and Puck knew perfectly well that Finn had kissed Rachel while dating Quinn. He had tried to bring that up to Finn and put in a good word for Rachel, but the other boy just wouldn't listen! At least, not to him. It seemed he listened to Santana. What was the girl's deal anyway? This was going way too far. He may have said that Rachel sometimes made him want to lit himself on fire but that didn't mean he didn't like the girl. He did. She was nice to him when no one was and she was a fellow Jew. Jews had to stick together, that's what his mom always told him. Jewish solidarity was important. He was sick of people raging on Rachel!

"Yo Lopez what's your problem?" Puck asked her, the next day.

"You mean besides you not hooking up with me for weeks?"

"Can you blame me with the way you've been acting?"

"Oh and how have I been acting exactly?" Santana said

"You're a bitch and proud of it but there's a line between bitchiness and plain, gratuitous cruelty and you've crossed it with Rachel and I'm sick of it Lopez!"

"Oh what did man-hands go and cry on your shoulder about it like the big baby she is?" she answered nastily.

"I'm serious San. Drop it!"

"What if I don't Puckerman? I'm a girl. We both know you won't touch me." She said haughtily.

"Oh yeah? Well I know a couple of girls who don't have that problem, like Quinn for example."

Santana let out a laugh. "Where have you been Puck? You kept your head in the sand way too long. You've been so careful to avoid both Finn and Rachel and tune out everything that concerned them that you don't even know that Quinn is on Finn's side!"

Puck's eyes widened. What the hell? Quinn had done way worse than Rachel, how in the world was she not siding on the other girl's side and being all comprehensive about Rachel making a mistake?

"Oh and I suppose Mercedes and Tina are on Finn's side too. Come to think of it, what about Brittany?" Santana winced. Ah hah! He had just found the weak spot. "Brit doesn't like how you're treating Rachel, does she? I bet she's not even talking to you right now 'cause you're being cruel! I bet Brit doesn't know the extent of your cruelty towards Rachel either. What do you think she'd do if she found out huh?"

"You keep Brittany out of this!" Santana screamed at him angrily.

"Oh yeah? What ya gonna do about it San? Huh? Give me shit for it? You know how impulsive I am. If you provoke me, I'll strike back, especially if you use one of your boy toys to get back at me. I'll get in a fight and I'll go to Juvie again and we both know that Brit doesn't want that. Do anything to provoke me, and what do you think Brit will think huh? She knows how I am. She knows I'll be risking Juvie and she'll be even more pissed at you than she already is for putting me in a situation where I could lose control!"

Santana was raging inside. She wanted to claw his smug eyes out! Argh! And he was right too. Brittany would blame Santana if she did anything that could cause Puck to get send back to prison. How could this happen? How could they take Rachel Berry's side? That girl was a nuisance. She was so…so…annoying and self-centered. She talked way too much. She couldn't believe Brit wouldn't even talk to her at all anymore over someone like Rachel. It wasn't like this was the first time she was being mean to Berry.

"So lay off Santana. Seriously. Last year, at Sectionals, you said you enjoyed Glee, that it was the best part of your day."

"Yeah, so?"

"So you're ripping Glee apart! Stop fuelling Finn's anger. It's destroying the club. Learn to turn your tongue seven times before opening your mouth. 'Cause I'm pretty sure that if I ask around I won't be the only one who's getting sick of you." Puck ended, leaving a furious Santana behind. He was pretty sure the girl would lash out even more the next time she saw Rachel, but he'd be there to put a stop to it and with Santana, it always had to get worse before it get better. She liked to test her boundaries. She would check if Puck was serious or not; she'd do the same with Brittany too. And when she saw that they were serious about this, she'd back off for good. Oh she'll always say some comments about Rachel, like she does most people, but she'll stop being such a cruel, heartless bitch. Now all he had to do was make sure Brittany had no intention of speaking to her best friend before she apologized to Rachel.

/

An: Hoped you like it! So good news is Kurt is doing better. Still have problems with Blaine, it's true, but he now at least has friends at Dalton and I'm pretty sure Blaine will wake up :) Anyway, **next chapter, warning for Finchel lovers who want them back together a lot, you may not like how Finn and Rachel are doing**. Or rather you won't like how Finn has been acting. Sorry but that's just what my muse wrote and I don't censure her in fear of one of my months long writer's block. I go with the flow when I write so never quite no for certain where I'm going. I have ideas in my head of course but then sometimes my muse goes on a tagent and I re-read and think 'how the hell did this get here? Oh well I like it!" So yeah, I have nothing against Finchel but I don't think they're hooking back up anytime soon in this fic or at all. So you might want to take out your favourite Finchel story and read it before or after chapter 10.


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I own nothing and I'm probably gonna be late for Christmas drama rehearsal, so I really don't care about Disclaimers!**

**Chapter 10**

"Seriously Rachel, it's like he's a totally different person" Kurt told his friend. He had called Rachel after dinner. He needed someone to talk to after his last discussion with Blaine. "When we were with Mercedes, he was so enthusiastic! His energy was so bright he even got me motivated in hearing what he had to say about the Buckeyes! Football Rachel! If there's one thing that holds no interest for me, it's male sports! But the way he smiled and radiated happiness when talking about it, was enough for me to listen to him and enjoy it. And when we talked about gay rights, he was just…how to explain it? He was like you and I get when we talk about something really important. I felt so connected to him and now….it's like he's a stranger. He's not the boy I liked so much…as a friend" he added as an afterthought.

"Kurt, honey, you're talking to me. Someone who knows you. You can say he's not the boy you used to have a huge crush on; everyone who's ever heard you talk about Blaine has to know about your crush."

"Except for Blaine….I hope. Gosh I hate being so obvious about my crushes"

"Oh don't worry, he sounds as clueless as most boys are"

"Argh! I know! It's so annoying. He used to get me and now he doesn't. I'm just so sick of the diluted Warbler Blaine! I want my Blaine back. The one who understood me and looked really happy. Dalton's Blaine, he's all polish and perfect but he feels empty. When he smiles, I don't feel it. I don't feel the happiness behind it; I can only see that he's trying to be charming, like all the other Warblers do. But they're so fake at times! They're all forcing themselves to fit a mould. I wanted to tell them off so bad during the meeting! But I don't want any trouble here"

"I'm not a Dalton student. I can tell them off for you if you like. It'll** really **be my pleasure" Kurt laughed. Oh my Gucci. He could see it now. Letting Rachel loose on the Warblers….that'd be hilarious. They'd never know what hit them!

"Thanks Rachel, but I think I'm okay" Kurt answered, not knowing that Rachel had the firm intention to have a talk with them no matter what Kurt said. They needed to be shown how wrong they were and how stupid they had been to miss a chance to have someone as amazing as Kurt in their Glee Club. Rachel had looked at the Dalton's website and she learnt that close to Christmas, the doors of Dalton were opened to visitors, which meant that she could go there with New Directions one weekend and show the Warblers what a Glee club was really about and how amazing Kurt was when he was with them. Uhm…maybe sing a song that would highlight Kurt's exceptional talent and have one of Kurt's Dalton friends tell the Warblers how it was too bad none of them could manage that. Finn would probably say that she was being mean but considering what had been happening, he surely had no say in anything Rachel did. Plus, Kurt didn't seem to have any problems with this side of her personality. After all, she didn't intent to be mean to them, she simply wanted to show them the error of their ways. It truly was for their own good. Although, nowadays, that remained to be seen.

"So, is Finn still being an idiot?"

Rachel sighed. "If you mean, has he still been hanging out with Santana and joining in or at least laughing at her mean comments towards me since we talked last week, the answer is yes! He has done that, although it's stopped now. But I still can't believe him! He's a hypocrite. He's been treating me so bad and yet he's still angry that I kissed Puck to try and hurt him! Like he hasn't been hurting me by siding with Santana and granted we're not together anymore, but I still expected a minimum of decency. This is like Jesse all over again, except I think it might be worse."

"Certainly it's not that bad" Kurt said. Since Rachel and have started to be friends, they had talked a lot. The subject of Jesse St-James had been raised because he really, really had hurt Rachel. "What Jesse did, egging you, was humiliating."

"Yes but at the very least he had the decency to do it after school, when no one would witness that humiliation. And by that time, Jesse had already betrayed me. And there was a tiny part of me who expected him to be only a VA spy. But Finn? I never expected something like that from him. And I was the one who told Jesse to egg me. He was hesitating. That hesitation along with his 'I loved you', helped me a lot during my heartbreak period because I was able to retain a small hope that he had at least liked me, and that everything hadn't been just a lie. It's probably just a delusion but it helped me not to feel like there was something wrong with me that made him not love me."

"Gucci, Rachel, what has Finn done to equal or surpass St-James?"

"He accepted an interview with creepy Jacob and told him all about how I was a cheater and Jacob published it for the whole school to see. I arrived at school and I had people calling me 'slut' 'cheater' 'whore' and 'bitch' among other things"

"He what?" Kurt screamed, startling Pavarotti. His voice lowered dangerously. Oh he was feeling murderous. "I am going to KILL him!"

"Get in line! Brittany and Mercedes are really mad and Quinn is ready to castrate him! She sided with Finn for a little while, though she left me alone after Brit got on her case, but now she wants to massacre Finn! You should have seen her! She tore him a new one. She understood that he was hurt, but she had done worse to him and he never treated her like that! She called him a hypocrite, among other things, but I'm not sure if he understood what the word meant"

"Hum…Probably not." Kurt said, thinking

"And don't get me started about Noah's reaction."

"Oh please do. It's bound to be interesting. I never thought I'd say this, but I actually really want to know what's been happening with Puck."

Rachel laughed. "Sometimes you two are hilarious. He said the exact same thing to me when he asked about you!"

Kurt's eyes widened. "Noah Puckerman asked about me? Should I be scared?"

"No, I think he's really trying to be a better person. And he never really hated you, you know. You just annoyed him with the condescending way you talked to the jocks and how you seemed to think you were better than everyone else. But now, he actually misses that."

"Yeah, I miss complaining about his horrible Mohawk too. So he's been nice to you."

"Yeah, he found me crying a week ago or so and he comforted me. Turns out he was feeling really bad about what he had done to me and couldn't look me in the eye because of that shame. I would have thought he'd feel guiltier about what he did to Finn but no, he felt worse about me loosing Finn than anything else. He's been there for me ever since. He talked to Quinn about Finn, and Brit told me he confronted Santana and royally pissed her off. She was worse for a couple of days afterwards but Noah was always around me to give her as good as she gave and she would leave in a huff. It was actually quite entertaining to watch. Brit said that Santana needs to know her limits and that Noah was showing her what they wouldn't accept from her. She's calmed down now, even apologized over the whole thing"

"Really?" Kurt said shocked.

"Well it was as much an apology as you can expect from a girl like her. She didn't seem terribly sorry but she did seem to realise she had gone too far. I personally don't really care as long as she stops making my life hell. And she seems decided to leave me alone. Now the only problem left is Finn"

"So how did our react to Jacob's article?"

"By punching a hole in a wall in the hallway"

"Really?" Kurt said. Ouch! That must have hurt.

"Oh yeah! Brit, Mercedes, Tina, Mike, Quinn and Sam all had to get around him and physically restrain him from pouncing on Finn. And even then, they had trouble. He's very strong you know and he was beyond furious. He said it was already hard enough to restrain himself around Karofsky after what he did to you, that this was the straw that broke the camel's back. You know how Noah is. He has anger management issues and he's really been good at restraining himself from attacking the Disgusting Pervert." Rachel said, using her nickname for Karofsky. When Kurt had admitted to her what had really happened with the hockey player, after making her swear on Broadway musical's that she would never tell a soul, she had been both disgusted and furious and ranted for a good twenty minutes about sexual assault and how Karofsky deserved to have his genitals ripped off. He had been afraid she would attack him the following day, but that would have forced her to explain why she had done it and tell his secret and she would never do that. She also respected Kurt's decision of not outing Karofsky. She personally thought Kurt was way too nice, but she respected it nonetheless. "You know there are a few dents on his locker door that attest to that but Finn? Even if Noah hated me, which he doesn't, he'd still be upset at someone treating a Jew so bad. You know how his mom raised him!"

"Ah yes, I believe she has the 'Jew must protect each other against the world no matter what' kind of mentality."

"Exactly. The Glee boys have been playing and singing hard core music to try and help Noah channel his anger in a way other than violence. It seems to be working, but Noah is now my guard dog. You know how news travels fast at McKinley. Everyone knows how Noah reacted to the article. I haven't heard one single insult thrown my way since his fist went through the wall. The football players had been giving all the Glee boys, especially Noah, a hard time since his recruitment speech. But now, they're back at staying clear of Puck. They might not have much brains, but they have enough to figure out that Noah Puckerman is a walking time-bomb right now. No one in Glee has been slushied since the article in fear of setting him off and jocks other than Karofsky and Azimio are actually being polite and nice to me, telling me that Finn was an ass and I deserved better. I swear my eyes were going to fall out of my head and my jaw dropped to the floor the first time one of them said that."

"So Finn is like the black sheep now?"

"No, they're not horrible to him or anything although the Glee boys have made some comments about how not cool what he did was. I really think that Finn is sorry and I feel he's wanted to apologize to me but Noah and Quinn won't let him close to me. Especially Noah. I swear I heard him growl once when Finn got too close!"

"Well I did always say that Puckerman was closer to animals than to humans!" Kurt replied. Boy, he had missed making fun of Noah. He was the best jock to go after because he had enough brains to give as good as he got and had actually never physically hurt Kurt, other than by accident during a dumpster toss. Puck had once told him it was because it would feel too much like hitting a girl and even he wasn't that cruel.

"Anyway, we seriously need to find a solution to what's been going on, Kurt. The atmosphere in Glee is so tense no one enjoys it anymore. And I swear Mr. Shue is about to do a burn out. He's already having a rough time with Ms. Pillsbury getting married to her dentist…"

"What? How come I didn't hear about that?"

"Well…we avoid the subject not to hurt Mr. Shue's feelings. But anyway, all this tension is really exasperating him. It's really bad. We have to fix this and get ready for Regionals otherwise Glee Club is over and we really need to annihilate the Warblers for how they treated you. We need to crush them in tiny little pieces!"

"Rachel Berry, remind me never to get on your bad side! You can be one rabid dog!"

"Yeah well, I don't like people making my friend feel bad about himself just because they can never hope to have as much fabulousness in their entire being than he has in your big toe! I never used to have friends before, and now that I have some, no one messes with them! I'm so happy and proud of you for leaving that group!" Rachel said. She really had an issue with the Warblers. Kurt knew he should be trying to calm her and ask her to give them a chance but really, he was enjoying it way too much. Hey, who ever said Kurt was nice? He had vindictive tendencies, he never lied to himself about it and hearing Rachel being angry and wanting revenge was hilarious. It really was very entertaining. And it distracted Rachel from her own problems, transferring some of her anger towards Finn onto the Warblers so she wouldn't blow up at Finn at school.

"So how are you handling things?" Kurt asked

"Pretty well, surprisingly enough. I'm hurt and sad and royally pissed but I'm doing okay. I won't let Finn bring me down. You know the very first time I called you crying, there was nothing more I wanted to do than get back together with Finn. After the talk I had with him two weeks ago, I figured my chances were small since he really seemed unable to trust me again. But now, I don't want to get back with him after what he's done. I know it was a mistake he did in anger but… I had hoped we could be friends but I don't know…I'll probably end up forgiving him…if he can stop acting like such a jerk that is, but I don't want this Finn as my boyfriend. This isn't my Finn. Just like the Jesse who egged me was not my Jesse, but Vocal Adrenaline's Jesse."

"You're right. He's not your Finn; he's Santana's Finn. I talked to Brit and apparently Santana had decided to take Finn under her wing and show him how to never be hurt again"

"And he listened to her? The girl who needs to make other miserable to make herself happy?"

"Apparently. I never said your ex was bright. And Santana is an expert manipulator."

"Why was she on my case anyway? What had I done to her?"

"Probably nothing. Like I said, she's been having trouble dealing with Brit being in a committed relationship with Artie, so she lashed out at the closest easy target. She couldn't target Quinn because she's the head cheerleader, Mercedes would have cut her and Tina wouldn't have been that affected because Mike would have gotten in Santana's face for being mean to his girl. You were the one she could go after with the fewest bad consequences for her"

"She really needs help. I think I'll go see Mrs Pillsbury-Howell. Wow, that's a mouthful."

"You can try but I don't know how much good it will do. She'd need to be in a receptive mood in order to listen to what Mrs. Pillsbury-Howell says. And you're right. That is a mouthful"

"uhm….maybe Brittany could do it? Santana seems very upset over losing Brit. Maybe Brittany could convince her to get help. She clearly has issues that need to be resolved. There has to be a reason why she's so affected by Brit having a boyfriend."

" Uhm, that might work. Talk to Brit tomorrow about it. I have a suspicion about what her problem is with Brit and Artie but unfortunately, she'll just have to learn to move on."

"Uh. So you think she might have romantic feelings for Brittany too."

"Repressed feelings. She's never admitted them to herself and as long as she doesn't admit it, she won't move on. It's sad but just like with Karofsky, we can't really do anything. We can't force them to accept their homosexual feelings."

"I know, but I can give Mrs Pillsbury-Howell a hint about what could be wrong with Santana."

"It's worth a try. Don't do it with Karofsky though. That guy is really dangerous Rachel"

"Don't worry, I won't cross him. I've been very careful to stay as far away from him as possible and have convinced most of the Glee club to follow suit."

"Good. Now…what do we do about my clueless and apparently vengeful step-brother? You'll have to deal with him soon. Hopefully, receiving the cold shoulder from most of the Glee club will have been enough to wake him up."

"Yes hopefully. If not, I'm afraid I'll slap him." Rachel thought for a few second. "I better bring Artie with me when I go talk to Finn. He's so good at remaining calm. Me slapping Finn, although it would be extremely cathartic, is not in the best interest for the club and I therefore need someone there to ground me and stop me from acting out rashly."

"I'd propose myself, but I'd actually do worse to Finn than you would and I don't think it would be good for our parent's marriage if I made my step-brother unable to reproduce with a football kick between the legs" Kurt said.

Rachel started laughing a little. She didn't wish it would happen to Finn for real but after the article it was a bit funny to imagine "Oh thank you so much, Kurt. That mental image is going to stay with me all day tomorrow. I'll imagine it when talking to Finn; it should be enough to satisfy my meaner side."

"No problem hun. It was my pleasure!"

"Ok so I'll talk to Finn tomorrow and I'll talk to the rest of the club as well. We need to start being friendly again. Are you coming to sing Artie, Brit and I this Thursday?"

"Of course! What else is there to do? Oh and I'm bringing my bird Pavarotti with me, if that's okay."

"Oh of course! You know how much Brittany loves animals. Personally, I was thinking of maybe inviting my guard dog as well, if you don't mind"

Kurt thought. Did he mind seeing Puckerman? No, not really. He wasn't the one he wanted to see the most amongst his old Glee group but he didn't mind seeing him. "It's okay. I doubt he'll cause any trouble. But if we're extending our little singing group, then we really should invite Mercedes. I miss her a lot and there's no tension between you two anymore so…."

"Alright call her and ask her. Oh and maybe you should ask her about that jock she keeps talking to, check if he's good to her and all. I know she wouldn't tell me but she'll speak to you."

"Are talking about Anthony?"

"No idea. I tend to ignore football players. Well except for the Glee ones that is"

"Right, I'll make sure to approach the subject. Thanks Rachel."

"You're welcome. See you Thursday!"

"Bye" Kurt said hanging up. Uhm…so Mercedes and Anthony have been hanging out right? He felt a little hurt for not having known that. Mercedes and he used to be so close. But he knew he couldn't fault her. He had been the one who had started keeping his distance from people and he had been very absorbed in his own problems at Dalton and in helping Rachel. It was time for him to call his best girl. He just hoped that she would accept Kurt and Rachel's new closeness. Rachel wasn't taking Mercedes place; he still needed his 'Cedes.

"Kurt?" Mercedes answered the phone. "Wow. You're calling me"

"Ouch. I deserved that though. I'm so sorry I haven't called you. I miss you so much. I couldn't find a boy even close to you at Dalton, although Joshua and Marcus let me be myself at least."

"Woah, there boy. Who are Joshua and Marcus and who didn't let my boy be himself so I can go cut them?"

"Gucci, I missed you." Kurt proclaimed, sighing from the joy of having his 'Cedes back. "And if you want to cut them, talk to Rachel. She's on the war path against the Warblers. She wants to massacre them at Regionals. She's so angry that you could totally convince her to let you do a solo that would show New Directions' superiority."

"Boy, we're talking about Rachel Berry. No way she'll give up a solo"

"Well…you might have to settle down with a duet with her, but if you bring a really good idea for a song, a song the Warblers couldn't sing and sounds really good with your type of voice, I think she might actually let you have a solo for Regionals. After all, if Mr. Shue is all about sharing solos now, then she'll want her chance for a solo to be at Nationals, not at Regionals."

"Well I'd like Nationals too, but I know she'll be like a rabid dog with its bone for them, so if you think I got a shot at a solo if I tell her I know how to make the Warblers weep, then I'll do just that! But why do we want to make the Warblers weep exactly? I thought you liked it there at Dalton. Have you been lying to me boo?"

"No, not intentionally. I was lying to myself to try and make things better. You know how I like Blaine right?"

"Are you kidding me? He's all you could talk about since you've met him. Deaf and blind people know how you feel about that boy."

"Well he kept saying I would adapt and fit in so I tried to do so because I like Blaine…"

"Oh hell to the naw! He did not tell my boy to fit in!" How could he even ask that anyway? He was almost just like her boy.

"He did."

"But he's a lot like you"

"Not at Dalton, he isn't"

"Well then, he ain't worth your time. If he can't act as himself, too bad for him, you deserve better."

"Oh Mercedes, I love you so much. Don't worry, I've been giving him the cold shoulder, waiting for him to wake up. As for the Warblers, I quit."

"What? But Kurt, Glee is your favourite part of the day"

"At Mckinley. At Dalton, it was the worst. They told me not to try so hard and not to stand out and they gave shit to Blaine for everything I did that didn't fit their sterilized little world. I don't need the Warblers Mercedes. I can sing in my bedroom as much as I want and I'm actually coming down to Lima every Thursday to sing with friends."

"Wait, you've been coming here and you didn't come and see me?" Mercedes said hurt.

"I'm so sorry, Mercedes. We started that tradition two weeks ago, when you were siding with Finn instead of Rachel. The reason I went to Lima on that day was because Rachel had called me sobbing again. Brit and Artie went to comfort her and started singing with her and then I arrived and we sang all together and I felt so good doing it that we decided we needed to do that weekly if possible. It's why I'm calling you now. I miss you terribly and I want you to be there this Thursday."

"I will but don't think I'm not still angry for you not telling me before. You could at least have visited."

Kurt's heart clenched. He really felt bad about it. "I'm sorry I neglected you Mercedes. I can only be out of Dalton for three hours and it takes me almost one to get to Lima. Plus when things started to go bad for me, I pulled away from everyone, especially the people I loved most. I needed to deal with some things on my own but now I'm ready to let people back in"

"You don't seem to have any problems with letting Rachel in!" she said hurt.

"Well technically Rachel had never really been in before. We've just recently started to be friends and things with her aren't like with you. You and I, we love each other to pieces and we're best friends, but we're not almost the same person. We're different and have different taste and interests. Rachel? She's kind of my twin sister. She likes the same things and reacts a lot like me. I get her. That's why she called me."

"So you're saying I don't get you? Kurt, that really hurts"

"No, no Mercedes!" he said quickly "That's not what I meant at all. Sure, there are things that you can't relate to like what I have to deal with because I'm gay, but no one but Blaine and other gays can truly relate to that. You do get me 'Cedes. I wasn't saying you don't. I was saying that Rachel, unlike me, had only one person who got her: me. I have you, Brit, Tina, and Artie. But Rachel? When the break-up with Finn happened, who did she have?"

Mercedes thought about it. It was no secret that Rachel Berry got on her nerves. Mercedes was a diva too, and she wanted to have solos but Rachel never wanted to hear anything about someone else singing lead. Because of her general attitude, most of New Directions were not truly friends with her. They were friendly enough but they never hanged out with her outside, like Mercedes did with Tina and Quinn. When Finn, the boy she had loved for so long dumped her, she didn't have any friends at McKinley to turn to. She didn't know why she thought Kurt would respond better than anyone else in the club would have, but she supposed it had to do with the duet they sang together. It had been surprising to see those two work together for once and she had to admit that their voices harmonized together better than Kurt's and hers would. She had been jealous and angry that Kurt had favoured Rachel over her, but now she understood better. If Mercedes had gotten dumped by her boyfriend, she could have called Kurt, Tina and Quinn and they would have rushed to comfort her. If Kurt couldn't have been there, then someone else would have. But Rachel didn't have anyone other than Kurt. So of course Kurt felt a special responsibility towards Rachel. He was her only life support.

"Do you understand now why Rachel and I became so close?"

"Yeah. I didn't think you guys would ever be friends but I guess it makes sense. You're much less annoying than her but you're still a lot like her"

"Very true. I know she can be exasperating at times but she's a really good friend. I'm lucky to have her by my side. I understand that you guys will never be best friends but getting to know her a little better and vice versa wouldn't hurt anyone."

"Okay Boo, I can do that. Besides, I feel bad for the girl after what Finn did."

"Yeah well, he acted stupid and mean but he's still a part of the club and you guys shouldn't stop being friends with him over this. It's making Rachel freak out about Regionals and that's in months. She's bad enough in the last month before competition, imagine what she'll be like if she started her usual freak out months in advance."

"Oh god, she'll be intolerable."

"Exactly. So the Glee club needs to get back on its feet or she will explode on you guys so badly that you will be traumatized for life. Especially, since she called a personal Vendetta against the Warblers."

"Oh I have a Vendetta of my own against them. No one tells my boy to change. Not the bullies and certainly not a bunch of preppy boarding school boys."

"Thank you Mercedes. Now, talking about boys, a little bird told me you've been holding out on me girl."

"What?" Mercedes asked. He couldn't mean…

"Apparently, you've been talking to a certain jock quite a bit. A certain Anthony perhaps?"

"Yeah well, you're the one who told me to go for it"

"Aaaannnnddd…."

"Well" she started, blushing. "There's nothing official yet but he is very nice and we like the same music and he loves my voice. So…I don't know. Right now we're friends and taking it slow but I think he's interested and I might just be interested right back."

"Oh Mercedes I'm so happy for you. Make sure he treats you right because I will go after him if he doesn't. I might be small but I'm vicious. Plus, Marcus is a black belt and has this thing about treating girls properly. He'd totally go Karate Kid on Anthony if he doesn't treat you right."

"Nice to know. But I'll be fine. If there's something I don't need help with, it's cut someone."

"Good"

"So what are we singing on Thursday? And who's gonna be there?"

Mercedes and Kurt talked for over an hour. He had missed his friend. Their relationship wasn't quite what it used to be but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Kurt and Mercedes used to pretty much be the only thing the other one had. But now they had expended their horizon. Mercedes was very close to Quinn and Kurt was now very close to Rachel. It was a different dynamic but it didn't change their feelings for each other. He was glad they were reaching out to each other again. It was really good to have friends.

An: Hi, hoped you enjoyed! 'cause I'm late because I wanted to finish and publish this!


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I didn't receive it as a Christmas present from Santa :(**

**AN: MERRY CHRISTMAS! (yes I know I'm late, but you can never say Merry Christmas enough!) Here is your Christmas present! Sorry for disappearing for a while but I had final exams at University then Christmas, and soon stages. Don't know how often I'll be able to update from then on, but I'll try my best!**

**CHAPTER 11**

Kurt Hummel sat in the common room with his two best friends in Dalton. The holidays were fast approaching and the ambiance at Dalton was a strange mix of happiness and stress. This semester's final exams were coming up and everyone seemed to be tense. And yet, people also relaxed in the common rooms, drinking eggnog and singing or listening to Christmas songs. Or singing Yiddish songs. Dalton had also included Hanukah decorations for the Jewish students. Rachel would like it. There was a lot to do these days and Kurt had a lot of remedial lessons to go to, but without the Warblers, Kurt had plenty of free time in his schedule. The Thursday practice in Lima was still happening every week, but the group had now expanded. Kurt had been delighted to see Mercedes again and to get to sing with her once more. Noah Puckerman however, had never been on his list of people to visit back in Lima. He hadn't quite known what to expect from him the first week he had been invited. He was however agreeably surprised. When Kurt started talking about feathers and glitters and how Rachel should totally used them next Thursday, the other boy's reaction had been:

"Fuck I missed you Hummel", which had shocked the living daylight out of Kurt. Rachel had smiled and said "I told you so". Puckerman was actually easy to talk to. They bantered and argued like before but there was absolutely no malice to it anymore. It was a strange relationship but it worked. Puck was really trying to be a better person and he knew that he had had a huge part in Kurt's bullying. He might not have had a problem with Kurt being gay but he had used homophobic slurs and had only encouraged other boys in thinking that something was wrong with Kurt because he was gay. In order to atone a little for his sins, he decided to prove that he was comfortable about Kurt being gay by asking him to sing a ballad with him. He knew that Finn had made Kurt feel awful about singing with a straight dude and he wanted to show the smaller boy that Finn was just an asshat. Kurt had of course refused to sing with his ex-bully at first but an insisting Rachel and a laughing Mercedes had forced him to do it. It had been awkward at first but he soon realised that the other boy was not going to freak out.

" How come you're so comfortable with me all of a sudden?" Kurt asked. The routine they had performed together had included actual touching.

"Hey I never had a problem with you being gay. You like who you like and I know you sure as hell won't like me and even then, I'm the Puckausurus. I'm a stud. That means girls aren't the only one attracted to me. Guys are too and it's fine. I don't go that way but there's nothing wrong with looking. I look at girls all the time, I don't see why gay dudes can't look at other dudes all the time too." Noah said, shrugging.

"Wow. Rachel was right. You really are changing"

Puck shrugged again. "Trying to. I'm sick of getting what I always got. Figured this might help. Talking about needing help, I heard you got yourself a boy crush who's actually gay but haven't been able to make a move yet."

Kurt blushed. "I'm gonna kill Rachel!"

"Oh please, like I wouldn't have figured it out by myself as soon as Mercedes asked 'How's Blaine?'" Puck laughed. "You're kind of obvious dude. "

"Great! Then that's mean he really isn't interested!" Kurt exclaimed sadly

Puck thought for a second. " he the only gay dude at Dalton?"

"No but it's him I like"

"Yeah I got that from your face, but getting a guy when you're a guy is probably like getting a guy when you're a girl right?"

"I suppose" Kurt said slowly, not getting what the other guy was talking about.

"Hummel, when a girl wants a guy to notice her, what does she do?"

"Well there are many things. Make herself prettier, talk to him more, get in the same circle he hangs with, try to make him jealous…" Then it clicked. "Jealousy. You think I should try to make Blaine jealous?"

"Ooh bad idea there white boys" Mercedes said coming up behind them, with the rest of their friends. "Those games often turn around on you"

"Yeah because normally the girl dates the other guy or pretends to like the other guy, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm not saying Hummel should pretend to like someone else, that wouldn't work. I'm saying someone else needs to find Kurt really interesting so that that Blaine dude gets jealous because someone is clearly trying to sway his Kurt away from him"

Kurt and the others started debating whether this was a good idea or not, well everyone except Rachel. She just stood there thinking. Why was Kurt's gut telling him he would regret Noah's suggestion being voiced in the presence of Rachel?

Speaking of Rachel, Kurt had grown more apprehensive where she was concerned the more the holidays approached. He just knew she had something up her sleeve. She had been planning something but she had refused to tell him anything about it which meant that it somehow involved him. And then one day, sitting with Joshua and Marcus, he was given an inkling into her plan.

"I can't wait for the open days to arrive! I haven't seen my girl in what seems like forever. Thank goodness her school has early exams. She's refused to talk to me for more than 20 minutes, let alone actually seeing me, because of the exams!" Joshua said.

"Wait Josh, what are open days?" Kurt asked. His two friends' eyes widened in surprise.

"The best time of the year. Visitors are accepted on campus until curfew. And sure we can leave Dalton, but only for three hours maximum. On open days, our family can come visit us for the entire day. Although normally, it's mostly the girlfriends that visit." Marcus explained.

"oh Lord." Kurt groaned. "That's what Rachel's been planning" Kurt whispered to himself. His two friends heard him however and looked at each other in a strange way.

"What was that look?" Kurt asked suspicious all of a sudden.

"What look, there wasn't a look right Marcus?" Josh said nervously.

Marcus glared at him. "Josh" Kurt said "You need to learn to lie. Now spill Mister!" Kurt said firmly, giving him his best glare. He could see Josh was fighting against himself not to say anything and Marcus was telling him to shut up but soon enough, the inevitable happened. "She called us!" Josh spilled, screaming loudly. He then slapped his hand over his mouth.

"Dude seriously, what's with you and Kurt? You always spill when he asks you something. You gotta learn to say no." Marcus said shaking his head.

"Oh it's easy for you to say! He's never doing it to you. He doesn't look at you like your mother does. I swear my mom always knows everything, you can't keep anything from her and Kurt has the same superpower! I can't help it man. He looks at me like that and I want to admit every bad thing I've ever done. He'd be a killer interrogator"

Marcus shook his head again. Joshua Petterson was truly a lost cause.

"What do you mean she called you?"

"He means just that." Marcus said. "One day his phone rang and this girl presented herself as Rachel Berry, Kurt's friend and said she needed to talk to him and me. How she got his number we still haven't figured out."

"But it took us two seconds to figure out that you do not say no to that girl. Seriously man, she's scary."

Rachel had made quite an impression on the two boys. When she had called Joshua, she had been in her full diva mode.

It all started when Joshua's phone had rung and the call was from an unknown person. He had answered it anyway, even though Marcus said he shouldn't. Josh almost never listened to Marcus. And he almost always lived to regret it.

"Hello?"

"Ah yes, am I speaking to Joshua Petterson?"

"Ye…"

"Oh good" the girl voice interrupted him. "My name is Rachel Berry and I'm one of Kurt Hummel's best friends. I've seem to have understood that you and a certain Marcus Matters are friends with him"

"yes Kurt is our friend"

"Yes I know that, it's what I'm calling you. See we have to do something about the Warblers situation, and especially the Blaine situation, but not being a Dalton student make planning this much more difficult and I need things to be said at certain precise points and I can't very well say them because they won't care about an outsider's point of view, they need to hear it from one of the boys you know? And…"

"Uhm excuse me Miss Berry" Joshua interrupted her. "But I don't really understand what you're talking about." He said slightly scared of her reaction.

Marcus rolled his eyes. "Give me that." He took Josh's phone and put it on speaker.

"Miss Berry, this is Marcus Matters. I'm afraid my friend Joshua is somewhat confused, could you please tell me what you told him?"

"Ah yes. I'm Rachel, Kurt's friend and I wanted your help to deal with the Warblers situation."

"What Warblers situation. Kurt is not a Warbler anymore" Josh said.

"Exactly! And did you hear them weep? No!" Rachel ranted. "Do you know how devastated we were to lose Kurt? Not just as a friend but as a performer too. And these guys think Kurt is dispensable, like he wasn't the most talented of them all. But he was! And they know it! He sang 'Don't cry for me Argentina' in audition and told him not to try so hard! Do you know how easy it is for Kurt and I to pull off this kind of song in matters of seconds? That's not him trying hard, it's him being himself! He was like a zombie with them and they need to be crushed. They need to be shown that Kurt was amazing and that they should have appreciated him like he deserves! So are you with me or not?"

Josh and Marcus looked at each other. Did they really want to know what this girl reserved for them if they didn't cooperate? No, they really didn't. And beside Kurt was their friend and it's not like it was a sacrifice for them to do something against the Warblers. Especially for Josh.

"If you want to give the Warblers a lesson and shove it in their pretentious little face, count me in, little lady! I got a few things to settle with some of them myself and I love Kurt, man. He's great, totally not like those 'stick up the arse' katy perry wannabes!" Josh said.

"Joshua language!" Marcus said "Beside, they're not bad individually. And Kurt likes Blaine so…"

"Really? I didn't notice that?"

"Are you kidding me?" Marcus and Rachel exclaimed at the same time. "Kurt is crazy about Blaine" Rachel said. "But not about Warbler!Blaine. Outside Dalton, when they met just the two of them, Blaine was very different and its that Blaine that Kurt loves. He needs some major wake up call!"

"Agreed" Marcus said. "Watching Kurt pine for Blaine from afar, only to see Blaine doing the same thing for Kurt, is starting to grate on my nerve as much as Joshua can be an idiot"

"Hey!" the other boy said. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I rest my case" Marc answered.

"Alright. I'm so happy you two are on board. Now this is what we're going to do.." Rachel said.

"Joshua, Marcus!" Kurt snapped his friend out of their memory. "Why did Rachel call you?"

"Uhm…." Josh started but Marc put his hand over his friend's mouth.

"Let me handle this, Blabber-Mouth. Rachel is planning a surprise and she needed our help. That's all. She's not planning world domination and we'll all be grateful for that fact."

"She's planning a surprised and she needed you guys? There has to be more to it."

"There isn't." Marc said convincingly.

"Oh really?" Kurt said ironically "Then why is your hand still keeping Joshua from talking?"

"Because Joshua will blurt out what the surprise is and you can't fake surprise worth a damn Hummel, which means that Rachel will be sad and then angry at us and we don't want that."

"Fine. I'll trust your judgement in this matter, but I do not like surprises so I hope for you it will be a good one."

Marc and Josh sighed. Well they had dodged that bullet! Only one week to go and Rachel's plan would unfold. Well her first plan anyway. The Blaine situation was another story. They'll have to wait and see. If this wasn't enough of a wake up call, Josh and Marc would have to take matters in their own hands.

/

**An: Yes I know it's really short, but I wanted to post for this fic before New Year! Hope that though it was short you still liked it!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: Has Rachel completely move on from Finn? Answer that and you answer whether I own Glee or not!**

**AN: **Hello again! It's been forever! I'm so sorry. Beside my two internships in a row that are now finally finished, I found myself with the biggest writers' block ever on this story! (well technically not the biggest 'cause I had a year long one with my last HP fic…which ironically is the only one I haven't had a complete writer's block on recently!) I HATE WRITER'S BLOCK. Why must my muse be so fleeting? I don't know but today I tried real hard and forced myself and this came out!

I know a lot of you have been waiting for this chapter and I hope it won't disappoint 'cause I was really stuck on ideas on how and what to do. If you think it sucks then please give me suggestions then because I can't do this chapter all over again. Not on my own. So anyway, really crossing my fingers that you guys will like it!

**Chapter 12**

"Alright, everyone remembers their part?" Rachel asked, anxiety slipping in her voice.

"Why are you so nervous? You've been planning this forever." Tina asked.

"Yes well you never know. Plus there's no guarantee any of this will work"

"But at least we tried and it'll show those Warblers what New Directions is really made of. It'll show them my boo was never trying too hard" Mercedes said.

"I still can't believe they said that" Quinn said.

"Yeah" Brit said sadly. "My poor babygaydoll"

"Yeah well they're gonna regret it if I have anything to say 'bout it. No one makes my Kurt sad. Things will work out. I'm more than ready to have a few words with them by myself to get through to them." Mercedes said.

Rachel found herself reassured. Things will work out. She should focus on having fun and making Kurt happy for now. The Warblers may be too blind to see what's in front of them after all but at least she would have tried something. Since the Warblers hadn't been impressed by their performance at Sectionals, she figured they should use a different approach. They knew what they were capable of as a group; maybe the key was to show them what they were capable of as individuals and show them how their Glee Club work. After all, the problem with the Warblers is that they didn't leave any place for individuality to shine through.

"Alright. Marcus and Joshua should be meeting us here" Rachel said. "Mercedes, keep a look out for Blaine. You're the only one who's seen him in person so tell us if you recognize him ok?"

"Watch out for Warbler!Blaine. Got it" Mercedes answered. She was ready to take over the world right now. It really was time for the Warblers to know what a real Glee club is all about.

"Ah you must be Rachel and New Directions" said a boy in a uniform.

"How do you know it's them?" The boy beside him asked. The first boy sighed and shook his head. Joshua Petterson was a lost cause.

"And you must be Marcus" Rachel said looking at the first boy. "and Joshua"

Joshua looked at her with wide eyes then turned to Marcus and whispered in his ears "Dude….she's psychic." Marcus could have hit him over the head…..if there hadn't been an extremely strict no violence policy at Dalton.

"Yes, it's a pleasure." Marc said offering his hand to everyone. "Now if you'd like to follow me I'd show you to the senior's common."

"A common room? That's where these dudes sing? I would have thought they'd have a fancy auditorium like Vocal Adrenaline." Puck said.

"Yes but Noah let's not forget Vocal Adrenaline were soulless automatons. That's not the problem with the Warblers." Rachel said.

"Really? 'cause I could argue otherwise." Josh said.

Marc rolled his eyes. "And you'd be wrong. They have soul. One big dull stuck-up soul but soul nonetheless. The problem with them is what's up their butts."

"Like what?"Mike asked "Rachel and Mercedes just came out one day declaring war on the Warblers and how they needed to be massacred and told us what they told Kurt and all but that's it"

"The Warblers have a holier-than-thou attitude. They're a cohesive unit that shows no difference or individuality. One Warblers is undistinguishable from the others. And they have a rules and traditions book the size of Russia up their arse!" Josh said. Marc looked at him in surprise. These were not words Josh would normally use.

"Wow. You've really thought about the question haven't you?" Marcus said.

"Hey!" Josh said offended by what his friend was implying. "I can talk like this too! I just don't 'cause you know….looking in the dictionary and stuff." 'ah' Marcus thought 'that explains that'

"Alright so here we are."

"Great. Joshua, you're in charge of getting some people here. Marcus, you're in charge of making the information indirectly slip through to the Warblers that New Directions is here and that it'd be nice to size the competition."

"No problem my Lady. I, unlike my best friend here, can do subtle. Plus I have a contact to innocently give that message"

"Perfect. Now Mercedes text Kurt. He's been too suspicious of me recently so we better play it cautiously."

Kurt Hummel was having a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something was about to happen. Something big. He just didn't know what exactly. But it had to be about Rachel. That girl had been planning something for weeks now! What could it be? Josh and Marcus, well mostly Marcus since Josh was normally kept from speaking by his friend, had assured him that it was only an innocent surprise for him.

Suddenly, his phone beeped to tell him he had a text message. It was from Mercedes _'Hey boo. Come down to the senior's common.'_

Kurt raised an eyebrow in surprised. That would mean…..great! He hadn't seen Mercedes in a while because of exams.

Getting down to the commons quickly, he heard a huge "Surprise!" when he got there. All of his former Glee Club, minus Finn, was there. So that was the surprise. It had been months since he had seen some of them.

"Surprise Kurt!" Rachel said rushing to his side. "So are you happy? We're all here! Well Santana couldn't make it but otherwise it's just like old times!" Kurt tactfully didn't mention that technically, since Finn was also absent, it wasn't quite like old times. But he understood her reasoning. Planning anything involving her ex would have been asking too much of her at the moment and beside, she knew just like him that Finn would be there later to visit with him mom and Kurt's dad. He only hoped this didn't cause any drama with Finn. He was sure Rachel hadn't excluded him to be mean and even if that was the case after the article, no one could really begrudge her for it. As for Santana, she still wasn't quite back in Brit's good grace and he could easily see her inventing herself something she absolutely had to do in order not to enter a project with Rachel where she would doubtlessly pick on the girl and get back on Brit's absolute 'Cat-Murderer List' (her equivalent of a blacklist).

Every girl came and hugged Kurt. The boys came and clapped their hands on his back. Tears welled up in his eyes. He had missed these guys so much. Seeing some of them almost every week still wasn't like having Glee twice a week.

"Sooooo….I was thinking, since New Directions is now officially back together, that maybe we could celebrate it in song! Anyone has a suggestion?" Rachel asked.

Joshua, hearing his cue, answered her question. "I know! Sing something you had as an assignment for Glee Club before! That's how you guys work right? You have an assignment every week and you choose your own song. I don't know you guys but Kurt said your songs represent yourselves so it's perfect to get to know each other right?" Rachel had told him to say this loudly so that people around could hear and get curious about their Glee club and what they were capable of. However, Marcus had pointed out to Joshua that if he talked louder than normal to attract people, his lack of subtlety would automatically make Kurt think something is fishy. He assured Josh that his normal voice was loud enough, thank you very much and he just needed to be himself. ( which was why the speech Marcus had wrote for him was overly enthusiastic….just like Josh in general but especially in showing something up the Warblers' faces.)

"Well, I know exactly which song I want to sing. And it's from a Jewish artist 'cause I only do Jew songs when I get to choose." Puckerman said picking up his guitar and starting 'Only the Good Die Young'. Rachel, when planning the song selection with Mercedes, had raised the point that they couldn't just barge in there and show off their fabulousness because obviously the Warblers couldn't recognize it and with how they treated Kurt, did not appreciate it. But then again, they thought Kurt was doing too much. So she thought that they should start with a song that people would enjoy hearing and singing to; start slowly with a song that showed how New Directions let their members free to be themselves. Therefore Noah ended up singing 'Only the Good Die Young' which the Glee Club had appreciated a lot, and then Sam and Quinn showed the duet with which they had won the tickets to Breadsticks.

As soon as Rachel told him to get things started, Marcus had left and gone to the people he had included in this charade and told them the time had arrived. Each one of them knew their roles to perfection. Marcus was nothing if not an excellent coordinator. Plus, he had to admit he kind of liked giving orders. Josh made it so easy you see. He told his contacts to go close to the Warblers and start talking about New Directions being there and planning on singing so the Warblers could overhear. Then another person was sent running to the Warblers, telling them that their competitions for Regionals were here and they foolishly decided to sing old assignments song to celebrate being reunited with their friend and satisfy a guy's curiosity about how another Glee club worked. Blaine, who had been depressed since the last time he had talked to Kurt, which was after Kurt quit the Warblers, found his interest automatically peaked. He wanted to see it. He wanted to see what it was about them that made Kurt believe they are so much better than the Warblers and made him quit the team. Convincing Wes and David it could help them size their competition for Regionals was very easy to do. After all, the two boys really wanted to win. So the Warblers gathered and discretely entered the commons where people were already singing along with a guy with a guitar. He was quite good and David was happy to hear him sing because they didn't know what his voice sounded like. Then they moved on to another assignment. Blaine couldn't believe they were given a theme and then they had to individually sing a song of their choice. Except for when they were auditioning, no Warblers ever sang on their own. Then Mercedes and an Asian girl sang a song that they had apparently sang after Sectionals. It was interesting to see each of them singing. It was both heart wrenching and heart warming to see Kurt smile so much at his friends' performances. Kurt had never smiled like that with the Warblers.

"Ok Rachel I think you're next. Which song do you want to sing"

"Well, I have song many songs, as you all know, but there is one right now that stands out, especially since apparently a certain someone threw the note during his performance of it."

"What are you blabbering about girl?" Mercedes asked, even though she knew perfectly well what Rachel was talking about. It was all planned out.

"Yes please inform us. Josh and I have no clue and trust me Kurt has told us a lot about you guys"

"Well, had decided to do Defying Gravity and Kurt contested for a chance to audition for it. But he couldn't hit the high F, or so I believed. Weeks ago" Rachel said turning to Kurt, "you implied that you could reach that note mister, and I demand proof right here right now!"

"What? Rachel, there's a lot of people here. They probably don't want to hear me sing this."

"Hello! Excuse me!" Rachel said loudly waving at the public. "Do you have a problem with my best friend and me singing one of our favourite songs together?"

"No" "Of course not" "Go right ahead" "Hearing the bird master sing? Sure" "Yeah come on Kurt, let's hear you sing see if you can do it better than your bird!" and more were thrown in Rachel's direction. Of course those people had known to answer to her questions. She couldn't risk people not answering her.

"Come on Kurt. I haven't felt like singing this in a while. I was too sad. I think it would really help us deal with our own heartbreak right now, no?"

Kurt looked at his friend's hopeful face then at the public that was there. He could see Blaine and the Warblers not too far away. Suddenly, he felt like he had when he was still part of that group; like he shouldn't express himself. But then his sense took over. He hadn't quit that group for no reason. If they disagreed, too bad for them! His friends, both for McKinley and from Dalton approved and really he didn't need anything more. Although Blaine's approval would be nice. Kurt shook himself. Now was not the time to think like this.

Blaine's eyebrows raised. David, behind him, asked "Hey isn't that a girl song?" "We do girl songs to David" Wes answered. "Yes but that song is like not singeable. Really, you have to be a girl to do it. No way Kurt can pull it off"

"Rachel seems to think he can." Blaine said.

"Alright. You're on Miss Berry. Maestro music!"

Rachel started singing, making sure to look at the Warblers when she sang the third sentence 'I'm through with playing by the rules  
Of someone else's game'. Then, it was Kurt's turn. He was giving his all and so was Rachel. They were looking at each other while singing, dividing their part automatically like they knew exactly what would sound better with each of their voice and they did know. And when Kurt sang "Too long I've been afraid of Losing love I guess I've lost Well, if that's love  
It comes at much too high a cost!" he couldn't help but look at Blaine when he said the last sentence. When the time for the high F came, Rachel stopped singing and let Kurt sing it alone and it was wonderful. He made hitting that note look easy which it wasn't especially for a guy.

Blaine was flabbergasted. There was no other word for it. That song….the way Kurt seem to put all of himself into it. He had never seen anything like it. It was….extraordinary. It was…something he would never see in the Warblers but mostly it was something that made " Don't cry for me Argentina" seem like an every day song and suddenly some things made sense. He had told Kurt not to try too hard but if Kurt could pull a high F from the top of his head, no preparation then he hadn't been trying too hard; he had been doing something easy for him. And Blaine hadn't understood that. Blaine was different; he couldn't pull a song just like that. Every song he had ever performed before a crowd was a song he had previously practiced a lot. Every show the Warblers did was with songs they had done many times but these teens just sang songs that they had sang only once in their Glee Club and they were still fantastic. Blaine wondered if his friends were coming to the same conclusion as him or not.

"Wow" Bruno said. "I didn't know a guy could reach that note. And I thought the song he sang at audition was hard."

"Hey Kurt's really, really good isn't he?" said a boy close to the Warblers. "I can't believe it. No wonder he entered the Warblers as soon as he got here. Man, it just sucks he's not one of them anymore. I don't know much about Glee competition but I'm pretty sure with a singer like that we'd have had an edge at the next one."

Peter was a friend of Kurt. Not as close as Josh and Marcus but close enough. So when he'd heard that they had planned something to show the Warblers what they were missing with Kurt gone, he was in on the plan immediately. Seriously, Kurt was a really nice guy and funny too. He just couldn't believe that the Warblers had tried to squash that spark he had and make him just like the rest of them. So his friend and him gathered in the commons today and commented after every song, saying how freaking awesome New Directions was. Take that Warblers!

"Kurt" Brit said. "Can you choose your Cheerios duet with Mercedes for the song you want to sing. I really liked it."

"You want me to sing 4 minutes Brit?" The blond nodded. "Alright why not? You're up for it 'Cedes"

"When am I not ready for singing?"

"Great! I brought your cheerleader uniform too in case!" Brit exclaimed loud enough for people *cough Blaine cough* to hear. Because of course, this whole thing had two goals. It wasn't only about showing the Warblers how awesome both Kurt and New Directions were but also to get Blaine to wake up and see what's right in front of his eyes waiting for him to make a darn move. And what better way than to put Kurt in a really hot cheerleading uniform? It was Brit's idea of course and since she had more experience in getting guys than both Rachel and Mercedes put together, they had agreed to it and included it in their plans. And so started phase 2.

"The uniform? Brit I'm not wearing the uniform"

"But it's not the song without you in your uniform" Brit said giving him her version of the puppy dog eyes.

Kurt sighed and looked down. "Alright, give me that uniform. I'll wear it for you but just this once." Kurt started walking away towards the bathroom when he heard "Babe need any help putting it on" Kurt stopped immediately. No. Surely he was hallucinating. Noah Puckerman did not just say what he thinks he did. But then Puck came into his personal bubble and put an arm around his shoulder. "Yes or no babe?" Kurt's cheek reddened in indignation and anger just as Rachel had predicted. It was perfect. Blaine didn't know the history between Kurt and Puck so all he would see is a hot guy flirting with Kurt and Kurt blushing over it. Out of anger mostly true, but from afar, she doubted he could tell the difference. Or at least she hoped so.

"No, Noah Puckerman, you Neanderthal, I don't need help dressing up!" Kurt exclaimed hitting Puck with his uniform than storming away in a huff, muttering about idiotic Neanderthals. Then Puck turned around with a huge smile on his face like that had just gone really well.

Blaine's hands hurt. The fists they formed were so tight it hurt. How…How… Babe? Really? Who was that guy to call Kurt babe? And just put his arm around him like it was just so easy. It wasn't easy. He himself had wanted to do it so many times but he had never had the courage. To see this guy doing it so casually….It angered him.

Kurt couldn't believe what had just happened. What was wrong with Puck? Did he finally crack now that he didn't sleep with anything that moves? It could be withdrawal from sex he supposed. Maybe Puck flirts with everyone now to keep his hands to himself? Still…

When Kurt arrived dressed in his cheerleader uniform, Blaine forgot all about his irritation. Wow. Kurt was just….Wow. He looked amazing and when he started dancing and singing, Blaine felt himself flush. He really had no idea how talented Kurt was.

Doing the routine of the Cheerios ended up being really fun. Mercedes and he were really great together, especially on this song. Plus people started cheering and applauding which made Kurt feel great.

"Hey Kurt, if I asked you to sing Le Jazz Hot again would you do it?" Puck asked.

Kurt looked at him with a hard expression. "Puckerman, when I sang that song I was costumed, wore make up, and had a douzen cheerleaders in the background to help me with the choreography. I can't do this song justice like this so no I won't sing it!"

Blaine couldn't believe his ears. Really? Cheerleaders in the background and dressing up….no wonder Kurt did not adapt to the Warblers well.

"Woo man. They dress up at Glee Practice?" David asked.

Peter turned towards him and said "Yeah! Isn't that awesome! Imagine what you can make of a song with costumes and dancing. Their practice must be awesome to watch. Better than this and they're really good right now!" He exclaimed joyously. Take that Warblers!

Blaine knew New Directions were different but up until now he had had no idea how different; in New Directions everyone could do what they wanted and express themselves like they wanted. In the Warblers, they voted the songs together but no one could sing a song they liked just for the sake of singing. It would be too time consuming and wouldn't be productive to winning competitions but New Directions had tied with them with a great number and they apparently spend most of their time doing individual assignments. It was surprising how well they worked and how cohesive they seemed right now talking to each other, singing, dancing and having fun between friends when they were so different from one another. All of them were different and all of them expressed that difference through Glee club. He had told Kurt that he didn't understand why he'd leave the Warblers. Now, looking at how Kurt was glowing, he finally believed he understood.

**/**

**AN**: That's it for now! As you know I can't tell you when the next will be up. I'm hoping to be able to continue working on this fic and update frequently from now on. Pray my muse sticks with me! There should be more of Phase 2 next chapter and more of the Warblers I think (this was just really hard to write...)


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: Let's see, Jesse didn't sing last ep so I obviously don't own anything relating to Glee. (what can I say, I'm crazy about Jonathan Groff's voice)**

**AN: **Another one! Yeah! By the way no offence meant to 13 year olds out there. I'm just using a stereotype I've heard before. And being a girl, I can tell you there's nothing wrong with drawing hearts in notebooks. Been there, done that, and since I'm a pack rat I probably still got proof…..I should probably hide it…..

**Chapter 13**

Kurt Hummel was having a good day. Albeit, a strange day, but a good day nonetheless. There was just something though….something nagging at the back of his mind like there was something more to all this than an impromptu visit from friends. Plus, what was up with Noah Puckerman? Did he really have so few people to flirt with that he was now reduced to hit on Kurt of all people? Surely not. Oh well, he had never understood Puckerman and he really didn't want to anyway so there was no point in worrying about it. Except for the fact that Puck didn't seem able to keep his hands to himself. If he wasn't putting his arm around his shoulders then it was his hands on the shoulder, on an arm on his lower back….he had been smacking Puckerman's hands away during their entire rendition of "Somebody to love" (Joshua had wanted to see a song where everyone sang together. Puck, Artie and Sam had divided the boy part differently so all of them could sing almost the same amount of song (Kurt decided not to take a solo…which maybe he shouldn't have….it would have given him an excuse to move away from Puck and his touchy feely hands) and Rachel must have been in an extremely good mood because the girls had done the same thing. The end result was great. Everyone got to show off their own talent and different styles while still being a cohesive group.

The Warblers didn't quite know what to make of their competition. Here was a group of individuals that were clearly quite different from one another and yet they manage to look like a real unit of individuals. At Sectionals, they had noticed the dancing talent of Brittany and Mike, and the great voice of Santana but they hadn't gotten the feeling that New Directions were a unified group as opposed to simply many different people on a stage together. But here, with the way they were acting with each other, and singing together, many Warblers thought they needed to revise their first impression of the group. I t was obvious that this group had very strong links between them and it was also obvious that although one of their members was now at a new school and had even been competition at Sectionals, he was still a member of the group. Hummel didn't act with New Directions as he had done with the Warblers. He was now arguing with a brunette about something and rolling his eyes at the antics of Mohawk guy. He looked happy and ready to give everyone a piece of his mind. It was very different from the boy who would have made one with the wall had he had the chance to. Bruno realised that this Kurt looked like the Kurt who had first entered the Warblers and that somewhere along the way, this Kurt had disappeared in the Warblers. He thought that had been a good thing. They have to act as one. No one can stand out compared to the others; in New Directions everyone stood out while being one unit. They were very different from the Warblers and while Bruno was very happy as a Warbler, he could finally see how Kurt Hummel could have not enjoyed his stay with them. It was unheard of for someone to just up and quit the Warblers before Hummel and Bruno had been as shocked and miffed as the others; no he understood Kurt's need to get out. Kurt was the kind of person that needed to stand out from the others, which in his old Glee group was no problem, so adjusting to the Warblers would have been like loosing something very important.

"I can see why he didn't want to stick with us" Bruno told the other Warblers. " We don't accept the sort of things that these guys do and its obvious by his smile that that is what he needs."

"Yeah" Blaine said thoughtfully "He looks really happy with them." He added in a somewhat sad voice. If Kurt was so happy with them could that mean he would leave Dalton to go back to McKinley? He hoped not. Not talking to Kurt was already hard as it was, if he couldn't even catch a glimpse of him between classes and look at him from afar…..

Rachel was happy. Very, very happy. A guy named Peter had told Marcus who had afterwards told her that the Warblers had commented on how New Directions weren't as they thought and how some of them seem to understand where Kurt had come from. Her mission was accomplished. Well mostly. There was still the very urgent problem of one Blaine. Time for Noah to act it up….

"So Hummel" Puck said putting his arm around Kurt's shoulders yet again, "how about a little representation of Push It. I'm sure your friends would like it. It took some guts for you guys to do it in front of the entire school"

"No way!" Josh exclaimed real loud "You sang and danced on Push It in front of your entire school? And you didn't get suspended or anything. Awesome. Man, how come we miss all this kind of fun stuff here. Bet you the Warblers couldn't sing that song, let alone dance to it. Man, just imagining it is hilarious. Totally not inside the Warblers' talent range" Josh said out loud looking at Marcus.

"Normally I'd bet with you in a heartbeat since you're bound to lose but for once I think you might just be right. I can't see the Warblers see that song. Of course, I can't really imagine a lady such as Miss Rachel doing that song either."

"Lady?" Mercedes asked "You've got to be kidding me white boy, doing that song was her idea in the first place."

Rachel started blushing. "Well admittedly, it might not have been my brightest idea in Glee Club but you have to admit that although there were consequences, we had a lot more fun practicing our Push It choreography than Mr. Shue's."

"Very true" Kurt said.

"Yeah and it was a hell of a lot more fun to watch too. Especially where you're concerned babe." Puck told Kurt. "Who knew you could move like that. Seriously, something to be admired." He said leering at Kurt and waggling his eyebrows.

Kurt couldn't help it. He blushed. He was going to kill Noah Puckerman. Kill him slowly. How…Darn it. He hated himself for blushing to the compliment. He was rarely complimented, especially by another boy. Of course, he wouldn't be interested by Puck in a million years but….a compliment is a compliment and Kurt's delicate skin could not help but blush because of it. Not to mention he was thoroughly annoyed that this was coming from Puck of all people. What was up with that? The boy had been beyond strange today. He should ask Rachel what is up. She's been close to Puck recently, with the whole Puck wanting to go Medieval on one Finn Hudson.

"Rachel, may I ask you a question?" Marcus said, in light of seeing the jock Puck flirting with Kurt. "I'm sorry but from what I understood, the relationship, if there's even one, between Kurt and Puck has been rather negative in the past. I understand he used to be a tormentor of Kurt."

"Yes, that's true. But Noah is changing for the better and has apologized to Kurt about it. They're not friends per say, but they are friendly nowadays."

Marcus looked at her incredulously. "I know what friendly looks like Rachel and the way he's acting now is flirty, not friendly."

"Oooooh, that's right. I didn't tell you guys!" She sat down beside Marcus and signalled Joshua to join them. "It's all part of the plan."

"What are we talking about?" Josh said

"The Mohawk guy flirting with Kurt."

"He's flirting with Kurt?" Joshua asked surprised. "Uh. I just thought they were good friends being you know….friendly. Like you and me."

Marcus rolled his eyes. "Just because you're the touchy feely kind of friend, even with other guys, it doesn't mean everyone is like that. Especially not a jock from Lima, Ohio. Besides, you don't call me babe. I would eviscerate you if you did."

"Marcus" Josh growled and frowned, taking a very serious expression. "We've had this conversation before. No using words I don't understand!"

Marcus rolled his eyes. If only he had a dollar every time Josh exasperated him or discouraged him or simply made him roll his eyes and shake his head. Why were they best friends again? Ah yes. Josh grows on you like weeds in your backyard: they grow fast and they're impossible to truly get rid off. They always grow back. Every damn year. Josh had been like that. He came back continuously, trying to make friends with him until finally he agreed to hang out with him just to get that blabbermouth to shut up! Josh can be exasperating but Marcus wouldn't change him for the world. There's no one better to have in your corner than Joshua Petterson. His loyalty knew no bonds. He'd do anything for a friend and had a mean and devious streak when you touched his friends. Combined with Marcus organisational skills and intelligence, they were able to come up with pretty nice revenge plans when crossed. Josh alone wasn't subtle enough not to get caught; Marcus alone didn't have enough out of the box ideas thanks to his lack of imagination. There were made to be best friends.

"I'm sorry. My bad. I mean I will kill you in a very bloody way if you call me babe. Now, as I was saying, Mohawk is totally flirting with Kurt and I want to know why."

"Because of the plan" Josh answered matter-of-factly, not believing his friend didn't know that. "Dude, Rachel just said it. Listen!"

Rachel nodded. "See, showing the Warblers off is fun and all but we still had to think of the Blaine problem. Noah told Kurt the other day to get a guy to flirt with him so Blaine can think someone is moving on his territory and finally make a move. But of course, Kurt didn't do anything of the sort so it felt down to me and Mercedes, with the help of Brittany, to remedy the situation. We figured Noah is such ladies man that he'd feel no problem with flirting with a guy because hey! He's THE guy. Plus, well there's no denying that Noah is hot and completely different from Blaine. Plus, well you saw how Kurt reacts. His relationship with Puck being what it is, Noah was the prime candidate to annoy Kurt and get him to flush, which from afar…"

"Would look like he's blushing from other reasons then frustration and anger." Marcus completed.

"Wow" Josh said. "You guys really put thought into all of this. I wonder if it's working though."

"I don't know." Rachel admitted. "It's not like I can look at Blaine often to check his reaction. It would look suspicious. I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

/

Blaine was having a bad day. Seeing Kurt so happy when he had been miserable with the Warblers had finally opened his eyes…..weeks too late. He had screwed up by not understanding and more importantly supporting his friend. And now he didn't know how to make things better. But worse of all…Blaine was starting to realise that what he felt for Kurt might just be a little different from simple friendship. And that's where the 'bad' in bad day comes in. There was this guy in New Directions, the Glee Club that Kurt visited often, that kept touching Kurt. All the damn time. And Blaine had no idea who exactly this guy was to make Kurt blush so much. Blaine remembered when he was the one who made Kurt blushed and if he was being truthful with himself, he didn't like it one bit that another guy could have the same effect on his Kurt. Wait….did he just call Kurt his? Blaine groaned.

"You ok, Blaine?" David said.

"Honestly, I don't think I am David."

"Is this about Kurt?" David asked taking his friend apart from everyone else. "I've noticed he's apparently on very 'friendly' terms with one of the guys of New Directions."

"Wait, how did you know it was about that guy?"

David looked at him incredulous. "Blaine" he said seriously, "You begged us to let him enter, to let him audition, to let you handle him when he skipped practice….you've been doing things you would never have dreamed of doing in a bad nightmare for this guy and you think you're being subtle about your humongous crush on him? Who do you take us for? Petterson?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well you didn't tell us anything about it so we'd figured you didn't want to talk about your crush on him"

"I wasn't aware I had a crush on him until now David!"

David raised an eyebrow. "You, Blaine, are a very, very sad case. I can't believe you weren't aware of it. You were worst then a thirteen year old girl. My little sis is thirteen. Trust me; thirteen year old girls are insanely obvious about their crushes. They draw little hearts with their crushes' name all over their notebooks."

Blaine groaned and put his head in his hands. "Do you think Kurt knows?"

"That you like him, like him? Heck no. The poor boy is crushing over you just as bad and not a little bit more subtly either. You guys are sad to look at. I almost went to Kurt and told him to make a move already but Wes stopped me. Said it wasn't our business and we could make things worse so to just let you get to it in your own time."

"You really think he likes me?" Blaine asked.

"Of course he does" David answered. Blaine wasn't so sure himself. Sure Kurt and he had been getting along fabulously when they first met but so much had changed since then. They weren't even talking to each other anymore.

"David, Kurt doesn't even talk to me anymore"

"Why?"

"I couldn't understand. I thought….I….my god David…I asked Kurt, this wonderful guy to change. To diminish what makes him him just so he could fit in. He's right. I wasn't….When I went out with Kurt, I wasn't like with you guys. I was….different. With Kurt I can talk about anything, you know. I'm not going to talk to you about magazines and articles about gay rights and all that stuff."

"While I'm glad you don't talk about magazines with me, I don't see why you're stopping yourself from acting like you want to. Blaine, you're my friend. I'll be there no matter what. Sure when we sing we have to fit in the group but there's no need for that outside of practice and representations. If you want to go all crazy gay guy with Kurt go ahead. Just don't include me in any conversation about fashion and gossip; I have enough of that when I visit my girlfriend thank you very much."

"I guess….I don't know. I guess I figured there were just things I couldn't do. Ways I couldn't act. Kurt….he's so out and proud. Even at his old school. At my old school, I had to be careful about everything I did so things wouldn't get worse and go into physical violence, you know. I guess I continued refraining myself from doing things even here, in a safe place."

"Look, I don't have any problem with how you normally are, and I don't think you do either, but you obviously don't want to act that way with Kurt….and you shouldn't. You think I act with Wes like I act with my girlfriend. Of course not. Well Kurt he isn't a friend Blaine. Since the moment you two met, you've been something else than friends. If you want to get Kurt back, just be yourself; the self you first showed him. Ok? And do it soon because Blaine, that guy? Who calls Kurt 'babe' and keeps touching him? He seems really determined to win Kurt over and though I know Kurt was crazy about you when you two first met….well distance and time can change that so if I were you I'd figure what I want to do soon." David said, leaving his friend to his thoughts.

/

AN : Hope everyone liked it! Reviews are always great to receive and they give you feedback about being in the right direction or not! You can also tell me what you'd like to see. I might use your idea, who knows? If it inspires my muse….


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: If I owned, Jesse would have been given at least one song per episode where he appeared. I'm so sad **** he only sang once….I love Jonathan Groff's voice. And I like St-Berry and dislike Finchel…so yeah obviously own nothing. **

**Chapter 14**

Blaine sat quietly, looking out the window, David's words echoing in his mind. What to do now? What was he supposed to do? David had mentioned going back to how he first was with Kurt….Suddenly, Blaine knew what to do. He took out his cellphone and quickly wrote a message.

Kurt was having fun chatting with his old friends when suddenly his phone indicated he had received a message. He lifted his eyebrows.

"So who's it from boo?" Mercedes asked

"It's…it's actually from Blaine" he replied, surprised to see the name he hadn't seen in on his phone for weeks. Mercedes turned to Rachel who smiled like the cat that ate the canary and had cream afterwards. Kurt looked at her with suspicion.

"Rachel…." Kurt said with a warning in his voice. "What did you do?"

"Me?" She answered still smiling brightly. "Nothing at all. Noah however…."

"Someone called me?" Puck said

"Great job Puckerman. You're useful when you want to." Mercedes said. Kurt looked between them with a frown. What was going on?

"Ah so it worked then? Alright! The Puckausaurus strikes again baby!"

"Really Puckerman, can you be any fuller of yourself?" Kurt asked.

"Hey don't hate on me when I just got your boy-crush finally getting his head out of his ass."

"Wha…What?"

"I told you all you needed was a guy hitting on you for him to make his move and I was right. Look at this" Puck said taking Kurt's phone "_Kurt. I know we don't talk anymore but there's things I need to tell you. Please meet me outside in five_. Looks like someone has a declaration to make"

"Blaine doesn't like me like that" Kurt said sadly. Mercedes and Rachel looked at each other sadly. Surely Blaine liked liked Kurt?

"Are you kidding me Hummel? If his eyes were throwing daggers I'd be death 20 times over by now. The dude kept glaring and making fists every time I came within touching distance of you. I didn't even need to touch you for his eyes to be all green. Trust me Hummel, I've seen my fair share of jealous partners. I know a 'how dare he touch what's mine' look when I see one. Now go get yourself a boyfriend already instead of wallowing in self-pity."

"Noah's right, Kurt." Rachel said. "This is the big moment so go out there and get your man. But remember what Brit says; be hard to get but not too much."

Kurt blushed as his friends physically pushed him out of the room and encouraged him to go speak to Blaine. Taking a deep breath, Kurt opened the doors and went outside.

"Hello Blaine" Kurt said to the boy who had his back turned on him. Blaine's breath was caught up his throat.

"Hello Kurt" he said almost shyly. "How….you….you look good today. Happy."

"Yes well it's not every day almost the entire New Direction group comes to visit me and sing songs with me."

"Yeah, I saw you out there and I have to say Kurt, you looked and sounded amazing. I mean…that song Defying Gravity, I never thought you could pull off things like that" Blaine said, awe in his voice. Kurt felt himself blush.

"I…when…Gosh this is so hard" Blaine said looking to the ground. "I… I asked you to meet me because today has brought to light many things for me and I need…." Blaine looked up at Kurt blushing. Blaine sighed. This was really hard. He wanted Kurt to understand he was sincerely sorry and sincere in his intention of being his friend again and maybe more.

"What is he saying?" Rachel asked Mercedes and Brittany from where they were hiding to spy on the boys.

"I don't know but this is fun. We're like spies. I've never been a spy before." Brit said.

"Really, I thought that's why you joined Glee in the first place. To spy on us for Sue." Mercedes said.

Birt frowned. "I joined Glee because San joined Glee."

"Ah, yes of course" Cedes said.

"But seriously what's wrong with this boy?" Rachel said. "He needs to apologize to Kurt and here he is just stumbling every word. I should kick his butt, or better, ask Noah to go and do it for me."

"Calm down white girl. Give the poor boy the time to make it right."

"I just…I saw how happy you were out there and I realised that….well you weren't happy with the Warblers and I….I understand now."

"That's….great" Kurt said slowly. Inside of him, many things were going on. When his friends had pushed him to see Blaine, he had been shy and nervous but now standing in front of Blaine, all the hurt, bitterness and anger he had felt since joining Dalton brewed deep inside of him.

"What are you really trying to say Blaine?" Kurt said rather abruptly. He couldn't help it. It's just….Blaine had hurt him so much and so deep.

"Ouch boo that sounded mean"

"Oh please, if I were him, I would have kicked him in the balls for putting me through all the shit he's put Kurt through."

"Yeah right" Mercedes said. "Like you kicked St-James in the balls for making an omelette on your head or Finn for that article."

"First of all, everyone, you and me included, were way too busy trying to stop Noah from beating Finn and getting sent to Juvie again to even think about kicking Finn anywhere. As for Jesse….it….it wasn't the same thing at all" Rachel said, a faint blush appearing on her face.

"I think it was." Brit said and Rachel glared at her. As for Mercedes, she looked suspiciously at Rachel. Since when was St-James back to being Jesse exactly? And did she hallucinate or did Rachel blushed when she had said St-James' name. Uhm. Strange. Mercedes shrugged. Oh well. She'd just have to see if Rachel acts weird again or if this is just one of those one time weirdness of Rachel Berry.

"I…I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm sorry Kurt. I'm so sorry. I…the way I acted with you, it isn't how I act with the Warblers."

"No really? I hadn't noticed at all" Kurt said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Blaine looked like Kurt had run over his dog…twice in a row.

"I…look the way I'm with Blaine and Wes, this is the way I am with them and I'm happy with that. But I'm not happy with acting like that with you because with you, it's just not how I am. I…I can be many things Kurt. I don't have to act with you like I act with them and vice versa, right?"

Kurt thought about it for a second. He found Warbler!Blaine diluted compared to his Blaine but….if that was what made Blaine happy who was he to say that Blaine should change. After all, wanting the other to change had been what had put a stop to their friendship in the first place.

"Alright, I can accept that." Kurt answered.

"Good…..that's good."

"Wow, they're really taking this slow. It's like watching a soap opera; it takes three months before the good part of a story finally comes about." Mercedes said.

"I know. It's excruciating, it means very painful Brit, to watch" Rachel said.

"Look Kurt, I'm just really sorry. I should never have asked or expected you to change how you were to fit in because…." Blaine had tears coming to his eyes. "Because there isn't anything wrong with you. Not a single thing I would ever change about you. You're….You're perfect Kurt, just the way you are."

"Awwwwww" the three hiding girls said simultaneously. " Why can't I have a guy like that?" Rachel asked. "Oh please white girl. You've had two guys in one year, let the other girls have a guy for a change."

"I…uh…well thank you" Kurt said, red like a tomato.

"I mean it. You're…an extraordinary person and I lo..like you just the way you are and I'm sorry I didn't understand what you were going through and that I wasn't there for you. I'm sorry I made your adaptation period worse instead of making it better. I'd…I'd really like for us to be friends again."

"No!" Rachel exclaimed. "You don't want to be friends you want to be boyfriends! Just tell him already. I swear if this is just a 'I want to be your friend again' meeting, I'm going to go and punch that guy."

"Girl you're way too invested in this"

"Yeah well I have no love life of my own, excuse me for wanting one for my best friend" Mercedes almost cringed. It was just weird to think that her best friend was also Rachel Berry's best friend. But she was getting used to it. Beside, unlike her, Kurt was pretty much the only person Rachel was truly close to.

"So you want to be friends?" Kurt asked. Was that it? Was friendship really all Blaine wanted? Was Puckerman wrong about the jealous glares?

"I uh" Blaine felt himself flushing. "Yes" he finally said. 'Darn it' Blaine thought. 'No I don't want to be just friends.'

"Alright. Friends then" Kurt said hiding his urge to cry behind a smile. "If you'll excuse me, I'll go back to entertaining my other friends since they'll soon be leaving. I'll see you later." Kurt added rushing to get back inside. He was in such a hurry that he didn't even notices the three girls spying by the door.

"That's it!" Rachel said after seeing Kurt's eyes filled with tears. "I'm going to kill this jerk" She said walking quickly and determinedly to where Blaine was.

Blaine was feeling like shit. He hadn't been able to admit to Kurt than what he felt for him was more than friendship and that he wanted Kurt to be his. Suddenly, the brown headed girl Kurt sang Defying Gravity with was walking straight for him and before he knew it, Blaine found himself slapped….hard.

"You…..You are a jerk. An unworthy jerk who doesn't deserve someone as uniquely amazing and awesome as Kurt." Rachel was pissed. Really, really pissed. How dare that boy hurt Kurt again when it was obvious the jerk liked Kurt back! Argh! She could slap him again! Or better kick him in the balls. But she didn't have the time because Brittany and Mercedes had joined her and were restraining her from hurting him.

"Rachel calm down." Brit said. "It's not his fault he's stupid. I should know"

"Mercedes" Blaine said. "Can you tell me what's going on?"

"Oh don't get me started on what's wrong white boy. You messed up big time again boy"

"No" Rachel said, getting an idea. "Actually this is perfect. Kurt is now certain that he has no future in this way with Blaine and is therefore all open for Noah to make his move. It's good, can you see Mercedes? Kurt will heal from this and in the meantime Puck will be there for him and then both of them will be happy" she said, then tuned to Blaine and said. "together" Blaine's eyes widened. Crap, he had been so shy at the idea of asking Kurt out he had completely forgotten about the guy who kept touching Kurt everywhere. Darn, darn, darn!

"I'll call Noah right now! Hey Noah? Guess what? Kurt and Blaine talked and now you're all free to make a move on Kurt because Blaine wants to be 'friends'."

"Already in on it, Rach. Making a move right now"

When Noah Puckerman had seen Hummel entering the school alone and ready to cry, he knew instantly that it fell on to him to fix this mess and wasn't surprised at Rachel's call. Oh well, it's not like flirting wasn't fun.

"Hey Hummel wait up" Noah said

"What do you want Puckerman?" Kurt said harshly.

"Man, Rach told me, I'm so sorry. Come here dude" Puck said, bringing Kurt into his arms and hugging him. It was an attestation of the devastated state Hummel was in that he let Noah do it at all. And suddenly, the Blaine guy arrived and Puck offered him his most self-satisfied smirk.

Blaine was frozen after Rachel's call but quickly woke up and rushed inside to stop that…that jock from taking advantage of his Kurt. Wait did he say his? Yes he did say his because Kurt was his darn it! And when he saw the jerk with his arms all around Kurt, touching Kurt with his hands and with that smirk like he now owned Kurt…..Blaine lost it. Completely lost it. He ran towards the two and pushed the jock off of Kurt as hard as he could.

"Blaine what the hell?" Kurt exclaimed, wiping the tears that had fallen from his eyes.

"I…I ….I can't take this Kurt. I can't see this…guy with his hands all over you, it makes me sick. It….He has no right. He has no right to touch you like that."

"Oh really?" Kurt said getting angry. "And why not? Did hear me complaining about it?"

"I ah…no but you…you should. I mean he can't just act like you're his, you're not!"

"Then whose am I Blaine?" Kurt asked "If I can't be Noah's boyfriend, whose should I be, huh?"

Blaine looked at Kurt's angry eyes and summoned as much courage as he could find in his body and answered. "Mine. I want you to be my boyfriend Kurt." And just like that Blaine found himself being slapped for the second time that day.

"How dare….argh, you jerk do you have any idea what you did to me. Trying to change me, not talking to me, and saying you only wanted to be friends, you couldn't have simply said this earlier and saved me the heartbreak of you not loving me like I love you?"

"I…I'm sorry Kurt. I'm so sorry. I was scared. I…I'm not used to doing this I could never take the risk at my old school and here no one really interested me until this new lost kid appeared out of nowhere." Blaine said giving Kurt doe eyes that made all Kurt's anger disappear. Kurt hugged Blaine who hugged right back. "So is that a yes to being my boyfriend Kurt" Blaine asked just to be sure. "Yes silly, it's a yes!" Kurt said.

Then suddenly, a huge squeal was heard. Rachel and Brittany just had to expressed their joy. Rachel rushed to Noah and hugged him. "Noah Puckerman, you're amazing. Don't let anyone tell you differently. Thank you so much for doing this!" And then she turned to the new couple and congratulated them and went to tell everyone else in Glee Club the good news. The Warblers had seen how amazing New Directions were, Blaine had finally taken his head out of his butt and asked Kurt out…..Oh yeah! She was awesome!

/

**AN : I hope you enjoyed! Reviews, comments and suggestions are always really, really appreciated!**** Thanks so much for reading even though I don't update on a regular basis!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Dislcaimer: Don't own anything.**

**AN: **I'm back!** Special thanks to all readers who have followed this story and stuck to it through my awful writer's blocks!** Gosh the writer's block I had was truly awful. I couldn't right anything at all! Nothing! Not for any story! It was very depressing 'cause summer is when I have the time to write . Hopefully my muse is here to stay. Won't have much time to write with all the renovations to do in my room but I'll do my best! Enjoy!

**Chapter 15**

The holiday season had been wonderful. Living with his father, step-mother and step-brother had been great. Even Finn had been in a good mood. Especially after finding out that Kurt wasn't going to massacre him for that article about Rachel. After all, most of his other friends had wanted to. Well, mostly Puck had wanted to. The others were too busy stopping Puck from killing Finn. So yeah, Finn was happy that his step-brother was talking to him. More than that, since Kurt was in such a good place at the moment, he had used the truce he had with Puckerman to mention to the guy that maybe he should try speaking to Finn again; they'd been best friends since forever and Finn did end up forgiving Puck for sleeping with and knocking up Quinn. Puck ended up agreeing to it only if he could punch Finn in the face for what he did to Rachel, "'Cause dude, you don't touch a Jew!" Finn thought that being punched was a fair price if it meant having his best friend (and hopefully other friends back). The only drawback was that hiding a black eye from your mother was impossible, which lead Finn to have to explain to Carole why her son deserved to be punched. Kurt couldn't help but smile a little as Finn stuttered his way through an explanation and at Carole's face when she found out the truth. She was not a happy lady. She was disappointed by her son's attitude. Kurt had never seen Finn looked so down as when his mother told him she was disappointed. Ah the fear of disappointing a love one….a very powerful thing it is. Talking about loved ones, Kurt also had to admit something to his father. Something that stressed him very much. His dad had always been very supportive but he had admitted that it was hard on him to have a son that was gay. Therefore, Kurt had an irrational fear of telling his father about Blaine. In the end, it was Finn who convinced him to do it, even offering to be right beside Kurt as he told his dad. Kurt was touched by his step-brother's proposal and acceptance but preferred to do it alone.

"Hey Dad" Kurt said, "Can I talk to you for a second? Alone?" Kurt asked his father after dinner. Burt looked at Carole in puzzlement. He wondered what his son wanted to tell him alone.

"Sure, Kurt"

Kurt was nervous. He was sure his dad wouldn't react badly but they never really had talked about when Kurt would start dating since they both figured it wouldn't happen until after he left high school.

"Something wrong son?" Burt asked, getting a little worried.

"No actually…..actually something is right for once." Burt looked even more confused. "uhm…I don't really know ho to say this. I never expected this to happen so soon. I think we both expected it to happen later in life and uhm…." Kurt could feel himself blushing.

"Kurt…are you….is this about a boy?" Burt asked.

"uh…Yes, yes it is. It's about a boy. A boy who is my boyfriend." Burt nodded. He figured it was something like this. It was no news to him that Kurt had a crush on a guy named Blaise or something and when Finn had told him the guy was also gay…..he figured there were chances his son might arrive sooner rather than later and told him he had a boyfriend. He had mentally been preparing himself for it. It would be, after all, a big deal for Kurt.

"I see." Burt said. "Well, when do I meet him?"

Kurt's eyes widened. "You want to meet him?"

"The guy's dating my kid, you bet I want to meet him. Size him up and all. Finn says that Blaise guy seems nice but I've gotta see for myself."

"Blaine. His name is Blaine"

"Blaine then"

"Alright so…I will go call him up to see when you can meet him." Kurt said turning around.

"You do that" Burt said then paused. Then he added "Uhm Kurt….we don't need to have 'The Talk' do we? 'Cause I'm really fine with you having a boyfriend but I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet"

Kurt's eyes widened in horror. He didn't want to talk about** that** with this dad! "No, no dad" Kurt said immediately, "there really isn't any need for that. I'm really not ready for that either." Burt nodded.

"But you know if you have any question, you can always come to me son. And Carole too, now"

"Yes" Kurt smiled. "I know that Dad." Kurt said before leaving to call his boyfriend. Boyfriend….it still felt weird saying that.

/*********

"So…..my dad wants to know when he can meet you."

Blaine laughed. "So does my mom. She's been very excited about meeting you actually."

"Well then I guess we really have to do this."

"I guess we do"

Actually, as meeting the parents goes, Kurt and Blaine's experience went really well. Blaine's mother just fell in love with Kurt. She was just so happy to have someone to talk fashion with (her husband and son having horrible taste in clothing….something which Kurt promised to remedy where Blaine's concerned….much to Blaine's dismay….he really wasn't much of a fan of fashion and designers. Loved to listen to Kurt talk about it but….that had more to do with him loving to listen to Kurt period.) As for Burt, after glaring at Blaine, showing off his shotgun, and Blaine telling him he'd rather use said shotgun to shoot himself in the foot rather than hurt Kurt again, things went smoothly. Burt appreciated that Blaine, being friends with David, knew quite a bit about sport and enjoyed watching the games. So yeah, as far as these things go, it went really well.

So things were really looking up for one Kurt Hummel. He had amazing friends, both at his old school and at his new school, he was no longer bullied, he had an amazing boyfriend….yes things were looking great. Actually, things were looking perfect. He really should have expected something like what happened to happen. Apparently, while you can leave WMHS, you can't leave the drama behind. That had been proven with the Rachel/Finn fiasco and on one particular Wednesday, after the Holidays, it was going to be proven once again. Although, maybe it had less to do with Lima and more to do with having one Rachel 'Diva' Berry for a best friend. Drama, drama, drama…..that was a nice summary of the girl's life. Once again, Rachel's life found itself thrown on another curve. It was late afternoon and Kurt was enjoying cuddling with his boyfriend while talking about anything and everything when suddenly his phone rang. It was Rachel.

"Hey Rachel!"

"Kurt….Oh my god Kurt! What should I do? I mean do I go or do I not go? In a way it'd be rude not to go. I mean we've been talking for a while and all but it's not like we're friends. And he doesn't deserve me showing up after what he did but then isn't that contradicting what I made him expect by accepting contact with him again? Kurt, tell me what to do!"

" Woa, Rachel Berry you will calm yourself down immediately. I have not understood a single word of what you were saying. Is this about Finn?" Kurt asked. Silence was his answer. Ok, so it wasn't about Finn. So who could it be about? Puck was definitively her friend so it couldn't be about him. And that's when suddenly a conversation with Mercedes came back to mind.

"_You know, Rachel's been kind of weird."_

"_How do you mean?" Kurt had asked_

"_Well, we used St-James as an example a couple of time and I don't know. Something she said about it being different with 'Jesse'. It's just since when is he not St-James? And she kinda blushed. I don't know boo. Something looks fishy to me."_

"Rachel Berry" Kurt exclaimed loudly. "Please tell me that this has nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing to do with Jesse 'I'm the biggest jerk on the planet' St-James!"

"It has nothing to do with Jesse?" Rachel said, her voice getting higher at the end.

"Rachel!" Kurt shook his head in exasperation. What had that girl gotten herself into now. "What have you done? And start at the beginning so I can understand the extent of your folly"

"It's not a folly….oh maybe it is. It's just….he said me a text a while back and of course I told him in no uncertain words that I wanted nothing to do with him and he should go get a personality transplant!"

"You go girl! That's the right attitude to have with him" Kurt said, stressing the word right so she understand that whatever she had called him for was a bad idea since it involved Jesse St-James.

"But then, he texted back and sent me an email, and said how sorry he was and how he made a huge mistake last year choosing a fourth consecutive title over me and of course I told him that I hope he feels eternal despair over it for what he did to me and told him again I didn't want anything to do with him."

"Alright and then?"

"Well….Remember the Christmas party? Finn and I were in charge of choosing the tree."

"Whose bright idea was that?" Kurt asked sarcastically.

"Mine actually. I…It was the holiday season and Noah seemed to have patched things up with Finn with a punch and I thought maybe I should try to do the same you know. To be friends with him again."

"I'm not sure you can call what you and Finn were before dating friends. You were way too flirty for that."

"Anyway" Rachel said ignoring his comment "I wanted to be friends but then we had a fight and it made me sad." Kurt frowned. His step-brother had forgotten to tell him about that! "So I started singing because it always made me feel better. So I was singing "Last Christmas" when all of a sudden a second voice jumps in and I just couldn't believe who it was!"

"Let me guess. Jesse St-James arrived and sang with you, once again to try and win you over. Argh! Rachel! This is the same as last year! He's using your passion for singing to try and seduce you into doing whatever he wants you to do!"

"But what if it's not! I mean Kurt you weren't there. You didn't hear him. He sounded really, sincerely repentant over what he did to me."

"Lies, Rachel, lies"

"He gave me a box of eggs so I can throw them at him." Kurt was surprised. Ok. He admitted he hadn't seen that one coming. Looking at it now, it did look like St-James was repentant but there probably was something underneath it. He truly believed St-James was ready to do anything to get what he wants. It was the Vocal Adrenaline way after all. Which meant he must want something or another from Rachel. What is it, is the question.

"Alright, admitting he is genuinely sorry, and wanted to apologise, why is he still contacting you? Because I'm presuming from your beginning speech that you're still in contact with him."

"I…I am. He…he says he wants to be friends"

"And you believe him? Rachel, the guy egged you! After using your feelings for him to get what he wanted!"

"But he didn't have a choice. I mean Kurt, remember what I did to that girl who wanted to join? I understand the drive to be in the spotlight. I can't imagine dropping New Directions for a guy!"

"Rachel Berry, you are many things, but a liar you are not. If you had to choose between New Directions, you know there's a chance you'd chose love"

"Alright, maybe, but not over New York and Broadway!"

"True, but he choose a fourth consecutive title that he didn't need for his future over you. You wouldn't have done that to him"

"Maybe….I don't know. I'm all confused. And now he invited me to this concert where he and other people will be singing, and it sounds like a cool concert and the money it will bring will all go to charity so going would be for a good cause. I just….I don't think I can go alone. Seeing him last time was hard and he's been really insistent on being friends and I'm not sure if it's a good idea and I'm afraid I'll take a rash decision if I go there by myself so could you go with me?"

Going with his friend to a concert where her ex would be singing and potentially trying to win her back? Hell yeah, he was going. No way he was leaving Rachel, still fresh from her break-up with Finn, in St-James waiting claws!

"Of course I'll go with you Rachel. I'd never say no to a concert, even if 'I'm a jerk' St-James is in it"

"Oh thank you thank you thank you!"

"No problem. Just sent me the details and all will be well!"

"Alright! Thanks Kurt! Bye"

"Bye" Kurt answered closing his phone.

"Hey" Blaine said "You sounded upset back there"

"Upset? Furious is more like it! Did I ever tell you about St-James from Vocal Adrenaline?"

Blaine thought for a couple of seconds. "Uhm, the one who dated your lead singer only to throw her off before Regionals?"

"The same. Well, he didn't just date Rachel you know. He also egged her!"

"No way! That's disgusting! You don't do that. Plus isn't Rachel a Vegan?"

Kurt nodded "Had nightmares for weeks afterwards. And now mister is emailing and texting her saying how sorry he is, and who knows what else and invited her to a concert where he's singing."

"And that's bad? The guy might really be sorry. If he wants to be friends…"

"What if he has an ulterior motive? What if his buddies from Vocal Adrenaline heard Rachel is single and decided to ask him to re-do what he did last year. She stood strong back then, but now, after last year plus the things with Finn this year….I don't know how much more she could take. She was devastated over Finn. I can't let that guy come and mess her up again. Nothing good will come out of this, I tell you. I'm going to the concert to watch her back."

"Good. Rachel deserves to be happy. She's really lucky to have a friend like you. Just like I'm lucky to have a boyfriend like you." Blaine said kissing Kurt. Kurt blushed. Things would be fine. But just in case, he'd call Mercedes for reinforcement. She'd want to know that St-James was back. So would the rest of New Directions actually. They'd all have to watch out for Rachel. Oh to be a fly on the wall when Puckerman found out. Jesse St-James really had no idea what could be coming.

/***********

An: Hope you liked! Reviews are always appreciated!


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: Don't own Glee. **

AN: Hi! I know it's been forever since a post and I want to say I'm sorry. A fleeting muse is a curse. I haven't written in a long time and I miss it like crazy. Anyway, here is the next chapter! I really hope you like it! Sorry again for the wait! I'll try to update quicker next time. My suggestion is to have story alert on this so you know when I update!

**Chapter 16**

"Wow. I actually feel nervous" Rachel said, playing nervously with her hands. Today was the 'J' day ( J for Jesse….as far as Rachel was concerned anyway, because in Kurt's humble opinion the 'J' stood for Jerk with a capital letter.) She had taken her time to carefully choose the perfect outfit for the occasion. She had tried many different combinations until it was perfect. Perfect for what? She didn't know. Why she had bothered with her appearance at all for a simple concert where one of her ex-boyfriend, one whom she had swore last year to never speak to again? She truly had no clue. She told herself yesterday that it didn't matter, it wasn't an important day and yet when she had gotten up in the morning, she couldn't stop fretting about what she looked liked. Maybe it was to show St-James how well she was doing without him in her life. That's what she told Kurt when he had raised an eyebrow at her appearance but he didn't seem convinced. Even when she had added that Kurt wouldn't want to be seem with her in one of her puppies sweatshirt anyway.

Kurt looked at his fretting friend and wondered yet again what was going on in her head. That guy had…..well there really was no need to spend energy on regurgitating all St-James faults. He wasn't worth the effort it would take to even think about it. The point was that when he had seen Rachel this afternoon, all prepped up like she was going on a first date, he had wanted to shake her and demand what in the world she was thinking? In the end, he had settled down with an 'eyebrow' message. Rachel had then explained why she had dressed up do nicely. It was a good reason….but he didn't believe it was the real reason and there lied the problem. Although where her second reason was concerned, she had a point. He wouldn't be caught dead with someone wearing one of her ugly puppy or granny sweaters.

"There's no reason to be nervous. We're simply two people going to a show."

"Where my ex sings! What am I supposed to say to him?"

"Rachel, you are absolutely in no obligation to speak to St-James. Like you said, this show is for a good cause. That's why we're here. Not to boost his ego!"

"True. I wouldn't have come if it wasn't for a good cause." She said with what she hoped was conviction. She interiorly wasn't entirely convinced. They had continued exchanging texts since he invited her and well….she kinda, maybe, sorta wanted to see him. Just to see him. After all you can tell if someone is sincere in their intentions better when they're in front of you than when they are texting you. Really. That was the only reason she might anxiously look a little bit forward to seeing him. Plus, this was also the occasion to prove to herself that there was nothing there anymore.

Kurt and Rachel soon found good places in the auditorium and started chatting while waiting for the show. The subject of Jesse was avoided. Then the show started. They were good but Rachel could think of some advice for further improvement in some cases. The stress Rachel had felt earlier all seemed to disappear. She was in her element. Singing was her passion and she absolutely loved it and loved seeing other talented people singing as well. She was completely relaxed when finally, it was Jesse's turn. Uhm. Was it just her or did he look particularly good today?

"Hello. My name is Jesse St-James and I wanted to dedicate this song to a very special girl who I hope is here tonight …."

"Oh no he didn't" Kurt said to himself.

"Rach, this is for you." Jesse continued

He did. Kurt could feel the anger boiling inside of him. Of course St-James would dedicate a song to Rachel to try and get back in her good grace. He knew just how to get her. Actually, everyone knew that singing to Rachel was a sure way to get through to her. But Kurt was there and he wouldn't let St-James manipulate his friend. While Kurt was cursing St-James, Rachel was simply surprised and touched. He had dedicated a song to her in front of hundreds of people. No one had ever done that for her. No one.

_Oh her eyes, her eyes,_

_Make the stars look like they're not shinin'  
Her hair, her hair  
Falls perfectly without her trying  
She's so beautiful  
And I'll tell her everyday (yeahh)_

Since he and Rachel were not together at the moment, Jesse had decided to slightly modify the song by changing some present tense verb to future tense to show what he wanted to do.

_I know, I know  
When I compliment her she won't believe me  
And it's so, it's so  
Sad to think that she don't see what I see  
But every time she'll ask me "Do I look okay? "  
I'll say  
When I see your face  
There's not a thing that I would change  
'Cause you're amazing  
Just the way you are  
And when you smile  
The whole world stops and stares for a while  
'Cause girl you're amazing  
Just the way you are _

Rachel looked at Jesse singing the song with every thing he had. As the song progressed she could feel herself blushing. Did he really see her that way? How could he? She was so….She didn't think she shined unless she was singing, nor did she think herself particularly beautiful, although she did work on her looks more than before.

_Her lips, her lips  
I could kiss them all day if she'd let me  
Her laugh, her laugh  
She hates but I think it's so sexy  
She's so beautiful  
And I'll tell her everyday_

Oh you know, you know, you know  
I'd never ask you to change  
If perfect's what you're searching for  
Then just stay the same  
So don't even bother asking if you look okay  
You know I'll say

_When I see your face  
There's not a thing that I would change  
'Cause you're amazing  
Just the way you are  
And when you smile  
The whole world stops and stares for a while  
'Cause girl you're amazing  
Just the way you are_

Kurt looked at St-James' show dispassionately. Yeah, yeah the guy had a good voice and good moves but he was still a jerk. Kurt turned around towards Rachel to make a scathing comment about the jerk when he noticed that his friend was not only blushing, she was looking at St-James with something akin to awe. Crap. This was not going well. The bastard had apparently succeeded in getting to Rachel. But no matter. This would end with this song. Kurt would make sure of it.

"Jesse was pretty good wasn't he?" Rachel said after the show finished.

"umph! He was okay…for a heartless jerk!"

"I don't know. To sing this song with so much emotion, he can't really be heartless, you know. We should at least give him that" Rachel said tentatively. She knew she really shouldn't protect him but after that song…. Oh what was she doing? That was not in the plan! Kurt looked at her like she was crazy. He was about to reply when Rachel interrupted him.

"oh there he is" She gulped. Wow. He really did look good today. Rachel could feel butterflies in her stomach. She hadn't felt like that in a while.

"Rachel….Rachel…Rachel!" Kurt almost screamed trying to get his friend's attention. She had completely zoned out as soon as she had seen St-James. If it was any other boy, he could have understood; St-James did look good today. But it wasn't any other boy it was Jesse from Vocal Adrenaline who had broken her heart in a very cruel way and he wasn't about to let his friend go back into his claws.

"He looks…good" Rachel said softly.

"Oh sure." Kurt replied sarcastically, " He looks mighty good for a guy who tore your heart in two and gave you weeks of nightmares with dead baby chicks in them."

" Yes but….okay I can't argue with that. I shouldn't argue with that. Kurt, I'm all messed up. You need to continue reminding me of the things Jesse did so I don't do something stupid ok?" She could already feel herself blushing. Darn it. Wasn't this whole experience supposed to prove that she felt nothing for Jesse 'I egg my girlfriend to break up with her' St-James? Apparently, some part of her wasn't convinced. This was dangerous territory.

"Trust me. That won't be a problem"

"Rachel!" Jesse exclaimed, having spotted her. "You came. I'm so glad!" Jesse said enthusiastically, hugging Rachel. Rachel tensed a little then relaxed. It felt good to be held like this and boy did he smell nice or what!

"Well of course." She answered, pulling away. "I wouldn't miss your big performance for such a good cause." She replied smiling, only to have Kurt painfully poke her on the side. Alright, so maybe she sounded a little too enthusiastic about seeing him. 'Keep your cool Rachel. Be aloof' she thought to herself.

"I'm really glad you came Rachel." Jesse said sincerely. "It means a lot to me. I know what I did to you was horrible and for you to have forgiven me enough to show…it means the world to me" Rachel blushed bright red at those words. She really meant that much to him?

"Well I sure hope it does" Kurt said. "After all, you did publicly humiliate her and used her for your own means!" 'Right' Rachel thought. 'He egged me and here I am acting like it never happened. Kurt's right. I have to pull myself together.'

"Kurt. I'm glad to see you too." Jesse said, smiling at him. Kurt wanted to deck him.

" I wish I could say the same but I really can't. I'm just here to make sure that whatever scheme you got going on won't work because if you hurt Rachel again St-James, you'll have me to deal with and trust me, it won't be pretty."

Jesse looked at him in surprised. Rachel had told him that she was friends with Kurt now but he didn't think they were that close.

" I promise you Kurt, there is no scheme. I wish Rachel could forgive me and we could be friends but I'm not asking her to. I know what I did is unforgivable. I just…I wanted to do this one thing for Rachel. You know Kurt I'm really glad to know you're there for her. I mean, I know Rachel is strong and can handle herself just fine but I also know she has a huge heart and can get hurt by others, so I feel better knowing you have her back. She's truly an amazing girl who deserves the best in the world. And the thing with Rachel is that she doesn't know it. She's this wonderful person and yet she doesn't see how extraordinary she is outside of singing. You know I meant every word of that song Rachel. You really should see yourself like I see you. It's why I invited you tonight. To show you how amazing and precious you are."

Rachel could feel tears welling up in her eyes. "Thank you Jesse" she said, emotion choking her up. He was….he was different than what she had expected. She had expected him to be arrogant and make their meeting all about himself but instead it was all about her. He wanted her to know how wonderful she was. She hadn't felt this cherished in months. Finn used to make her feel good about herself but he never quite looked at her the way Jesse now did. Jesse had never looked at her the way he did now either. There was an intense, sincere affection in his eyes that gripped her heart tight and all of a sudden, she thought she really could get past what he had done to her and completely forgive him. He had changed. He had matured. Maybe….maybe they could really be friends after all….maybe….just maybe they could eventually be more. Either way, she now could see Jesse St-James in her future. Now the only problem was how to tell that to Kurt?

Rachel and Jesse soon said their goodbyes and Kurt and Rachel went home. The drive back was as filled with silence as the drive to the show had been filled with conversations. Kurt could see that Rachel had been touched by St-James words. He was good. Really good. Kurt could almost believe him but he knew there was no way someone as selfish and driven as St-James could be sincere about having no ulterior motive. He wanted something. Kurt wasn't completely sure as to what he wanted, if he simply wanted Rachel as his girlfriend or if he had an entirely other kind of scheme in mind, but he knew that he wanted something and when he would get it, he would be back to his old self and Rachel would get hurt. He couldn't let that happen. But he could see that bashing St-James tonight was just not going to work. Rachel had taken the bait and he knew she was now making peace with St-James. No. There was nothing to do tonight and maybe there was nothing he could do alone. He would need reinforcement. He needed someone who could get to Rachel and he had perfect person in mind. That's why when Kurt got home that night, he didn't go straight to bed. Instead, he picked up the phone and dialled a number he didn't really think he would ever use. The phone rang and then someone picked up. "Puckerman. We have a problem."


End file.
